A Crooked Kind of Perfect

I just read a wonderful middle grade fiction book, titled A Cooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban. It is about 10-year-old (almost 11) Zoe Elias, who dreams of playing a grand piano in Carnegie Hall, but in reality plays "a wood-grained, vinyl-seated, wheeze-bag organ. The Perfectone D-60." Zoe is lovable from word one and when she said "I have gone over to the dork side", she was not only Zoe Elias, but me in sixth grade. All the characters in the story are beautifully written: Zoe's mom, a controller for the state of Michigan who sometimes puts work ahead of the family she loves so much, Zoe's father who is afraid to leave the house and takes Living Room University classes to stay active and Wheeler, Zoe's friend (and possible boyfriend!) who hangs out with her dad and is completely supportive of her piano aspirations.

A Crooked Kind of Pefect is a heartwarming story about family, friends, passion in music and discovering what being perfect really means. Linda says it best when she wrote: "Perfection itself is imperfection...it wasn't enough to all get the notes right. When you play the piano, you have to get the heart right. Which is harder than getting the notes right....And the ways to do it are as many and as different as there are people in the world."

In hearing Linda Urban speak, she claims not to be funny. Don't believe her. This book is poinent and laugh out loud funny.
What I would have done for this book when I was 10. Why would anyone want to be the "popular" kid in school? They never have books written about them.