A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban

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      Zoe Elias is a 10 year old girl with aspirations of becoming a child piano prodigy, playing to audiences at Carnegie Hall. Instead of receiving a baby grand piano from her zany and agoraphobic father, she is gifted with a wheezy Perfectone-60 organ. A Crooked Kind of Perfect, by Linda Urban, is filled with characters that are charming, believable, and flawed. From ten-year-old Zoe, to her mentally ill father, and her workaholic mother, the characters are crystal clear and their motivations are believable. Zoe slowly deals with the hand she has been dealt in life through practicing on her organ.  Despite the fact that it was not the instrument she had envisioned for herself, Zoe decides to give it a chance and enters into the annual Perform-O-Rama organ competition.Her organ has transformative powers not only over her in her growing ability to accept things as they are, but also over her father as he dances along to her music. In the end, Zoe realizes that flaws can be embraced, and that it is possible to overcome your fears, and that you should always follow the beat of your own drum. 

Evaluative Criteria: Characters and Theme (included in review)

Urban, L. (2009). A crooked kind of perfect. Boston, MA: Sandpiper.


-Ms. J