Songs of a Teenage Nomad by Kim Culbertson is a book with a lot of emotion, and a lot of heart. Calle is a young teen whose entire life is completely lacking in stability. Her dad left when she was very little, and her mom has bounced from relationship to relationship ever since. And with each new relationship (and often without them) they move to a new town. The mom drops a penny onto a map of California, and that's where they go next. That type of lifestyle is hard on anyone, but especially a teenager. Calle wants to fit in, to belong, but it's never a good idea to make new friends or get comfortable in an area when you know your mom could decide to pack up and move again at any time.
My heart hurt for Calle. Her mom tried to be a good parent, but it's fairly clear that she doesn't know how to be herself, which makes it awfully hard to take care of a teenager. The mom is always reinventing herself, and Calle desperately needs stability. Her mom is also very tight-lipped. She won't tell Calle anything about her absentee father, other than he left them a long time ago. Calle keeps asking questions, trying to understand where she comes from, but her mom refuses to answer her questions, even when the lies and contradictions are staring her in the face. Like the letter Calle finds from her dad in her mom's drawers, that make is obvious he's been trying to write to her for a long time, but her mom always hides the letters. When Calle confronts her about this, her mom focuses on the snooping, and refuses to address the letter itself. It really bothered me. There comes a time when you can't 'protect' your child anymore, and keeping the truth from them hurts them far more than any truth can.
Calle herself also bothered me a little bit, especially in her 'relationship' with Sam. I understand why she is initially attracted, interested and drawn to Sam. I really do. But after the third or fourth time he ignores her or treats her like trash, I started to wonder why on earth Calle bothered talking to him again. I understand that he has his own demons to wrestle, but that doesn't excuse his behavior, especially since he never really apologizes, or tries to make it right. Calle let herself be pushed around and stepped on by this kid over and over again and it really bothered me. I wanted her to be happy and I just didn't think this kid was the way to make that happen.
There was also a lot of drama surrounding the father. I know a large portion of the plot was Calle's mom keeping information from her, but I really wished we had been given more information about Calle's dad, both past and present. And, I won't spoil anything, but the resolution with dad was also rather unsatisfactory to me.
However, those two grievances aside, I really enjoyed this book, and especially appreciated Calle as a narrator. I don't blame her for being a little bit... soft. She's a teenager who has had no stability in her life, desperately looking for it. She speaks to that lonely teenager everyone has living inside them, that just wants/wanted to be accepted and be loved. For all the drama and tough stuff life has handed to her, she's remarkably strong and adaptable. She deals with a lot more than I've ever had to, and I was impressed by Calle many times. Although, I do have to say, she's a bit of an over-discloser. She shares an awful lot of personal and private information with an lot of people. I can't decide if she's just open about her life, or if she hasn't quite gotten the hang of who should hear what information, and when.
I also loved the idea of Calle's song journal. She strongly links music to memories, and writes down the memories and the songs associated with them, so she can hold on to them and keep them a part of herself. I smiled a lot reading this book, because I really like a lot of old music, and I recognized a lot of the songs that are associated with Calle's memories. I spent the next couple of days humming Mr. Tambourine Man which has a lot of significance to Calle.
I'd definitely recommend this book. Calle is a great character, and I think there is a lot to be learned from her and her story.
*Disclaimer: I received this book through Around the World Tours.