A White Pine Award nominee and a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection!

A fierce voice longs to break free.

A spark ignites inside fourteen-year-old Iz Beaufort when she hears school music group Manifesto perform. Even though she hasn’t written a song since That Place, she recognizes herself in the moving performance and longs to be part of the group, certain that they might actually understand her. But Manifesto is based at the prestigious Métier School, and Iz has bounced through twenty-six foster homes. Plus, there’s no way Dominion Children’s Care would ever send a foster kid to a private school when a public option is available. So Iz does what any passionate, broken, off-the-chart wunderkind might and takes matters into her own hands. Iz fakes her way in only to face a new set of challenges: tuition fees, tough classwork, and new classmates she can’t immediately identify as friends or foes. And if she can’t handle all this while keeping how she got into Métier a secret, she could get kicked out of both school and her current home. But a life with music—a life where Iz gets to have a voice—might be worth risking everything.

An Apple Books Best Book of 2023!

"A compassionate, character-driven story that will particularly resonate with music lovers." - Kirkus

"Highly Recommended." - CM Canadian Review of Materials

Susan Currie is an elementary teacher in Brampton, Ontario (22 years and counting). Before she entered the public school system, she earned a living as an accompanist, pit musician, music director, choir director, organist, dinner musician, leader of various music programs for children, and piano teacher. She has written two other books – Basket of Beethoven (Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2001) and The Mask That Sang (Second Story Press, 2016). Susan is an adoptee who was in the foster care system briefly as a baby, and only learned of her Haudenosaunee heritage (Cayuga Nation, Turtle Clan) as an adult. She is happily married to John and has a wonderful daughter named Rachel.

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