HOW TO WRITE THE SOUNDTRACK TO YOUR LIFE

The shock of hearing her original music online spurs a shy keyboard player into action.

Trotting in several of the racially diverse preteen classmates of her co-published How To Make a Movie in 12 Days (2023) to fill out the rich supporting cast, Australian author Hardy gives socially anxious 11-year-old Murphy Parker, who presents White, the lead in an episode that speaks to the ethics of stealing intellectual property. The novel also sensitively models friendships—true and otherwise—and ways of living with a clinically depressed parent. It’s bad enough that an unknown band is dropping popular videos playing thinly disguised arrangements of Murphy’s original compositions, ones she’s sure she’s never played in public. Perhaps even worse, her claim at school that the music is hers touches off a virulent round of taunts and scoffing—even from supposed friends. But, unexpectedly, not from quiet classmate Avery, a boy who turns out to be as alive as she is to ambient sounds and aural patterns, and his decidedly un-quiet bestie, Zara, a wheelchair-using serial crusader who takes up the cause despite Murphy’s reluctance to make scenes. Along with new and better friends, the ultimately successful investigation and confrontation leaves Murphy feeling more in control both of her music and her home life with her single dad, too.

Upbeat, light in tone, and both deft and respectful in its exploration of characters and issues.