A Crooked Kind of Perfect / Linda Urban / 214 pages

Zoe Elias wants to be a piano virtuoso like Vladimir Horowitz.   She is sure that if she could get a piano she would become a child prodigy, but life is "a crooked kind of perfect" and her Dad buys an organ instead - a Perfectone D-60.  Life is not perfect for her Dad either.  he has over sixty degrees from a correspondence school, but no job.  Lots of people unnerve him and he almost always gets lost when driving.  Zoe's Mom is City Comptroller and when she works, Zoe's Dad takes care of the house and bakes.  Zoe loses her best friend, but finds a better one.  As Zoe prepares to enter the Perform-O-Rama, Wheeler and her Dad prepare to change her life for the better.  This is a moving, empowering tale sure to please young readers.  Linda Urban will be attending the Children's Literature Festival in Kirksville in March.