The Color of Sound
by: Emily Barth Isler
March 5, 2024, Carol Rhoda Books
336 pages
Review by: E. Broderick
I’ve been a mother and I’ve been a daughter. I still am both of those things, yet there is something extremely difficult about defining those relationships. To be a parent is to love somebody else with your whole heart, yet never fully understand them. To be a child is to go through a series of changes including realizing your parents are fallible individuals who were once children too. These states of being are inextricably intertwined but parent and child must also define themselves as individuals. This struggle is at the heart of Emily Barth Isler’s middle grade novel The Color of Sound.
Main character Rosie has always been a violin prodigy, but after a falling out with her best friend she’s starting to question who she is without her music and the demanding schedule it necessitates. She’s on strike and refusing to play – much to the dismay of her high achieving parents. To top off this upheaval, she and her mother are living in Connecticut for the summer to spend more time with her grandmother who is dying from Alzheimer’s. Said grandmother remembers almost nothing except for the fact that Rosie plays violin. Not exactly helping the identity crisis.
Of note, Rosie experiences the world differently than others around her. Her senses often bleed together, most commonly described in the book by the way sound has color for her, which is known as synesthesia. Her inability to talk to her mother about this is reflective of the larger communication block between them. In a twist, Rosie finds a way to communicate with a childhood version of her mother, which she finds much easier than present day conversations. She learns how people change over time, how our characters are shaped by life events, and that her past is more nuanced than she expected.
Middle graders who do not enjoy “the kissing books” will be fine with this one. Rosie does have a crush on an older boy but this is not the focus of the plot and it is handled very gently. If anything, there’s more talk about Rosie’s former best friend and her desire to tell Rosie about all the girls she likes, showing that we all mature at different paces and one friend might be more interested in romance than another. However, there is an off page traumatic loss of a pet and I know some of my readers specifically ask for that content note. You can easily skip those pages if you need to.
Rosie is not on strike because she hates the violin. On the contrary, its loss feels like a gaping hole to the reader. She’s simply trying to figure out her life and how much of herself she wants to have defined by this one thing vs. how much her parents are demanding of her. Similarly, Rosie’s mother was less religiously inclined than her own parents and didn’t want a bat mitzvah. Ironically, as part of her later practice Rosie’s mother decides not to eat bacon even though Rosie’s grandfather cooks and eats it regularly. Everyone’s connection to Judaism is different and Rosie then makes her own personal choices about her religious practice.
The Color of Sound is a book about how we each define ourselves, how those choices are influenced by our relationships, but also how there is always room for change. Rosie makes peace with her music, but also with her families’ past. She celebrates what makes her special, including her synesthesia, and she finds the words to communicate this to those that mean the most to her. Middle grade readers going through the complicated process of growing up will hopefully find some inspiration in her story.
Note: BookishlyJewish received a finished copy of this book from the publisher after we emailed.