2019 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People Honor Book
2019 Jefferson Cup Award Honor Book for Young Readers
The Best Children's Books of the Year 2019, Bank Street College

STARRED REVIEW! "Beautiful and intelligent historical fiction in the vein of Christopher Paul Curtis, Vince Vawter, and Mildred D. Taylor. A must-have for school and public library collections."--School Library Journal starred review

Nate's family has a secret, and it's wrapped up in a song. The problem is, his preacher father hates music, and when he catches Nate hanging around downtown Bristol with musicians like Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, he comes down hard on him. So Nate sets out in search of himself and the song he thinks will heal his family. Set during the "big bang" of country music in the late 1920s, Nate's journey of self-discovery parallels that of a region finding its voice for the first time.