The Maestro

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

Wynne-Jones’s first YA novel exhibits the superior writing skills
evident in his works for younger readers. From the evocative cover
illustration to the book’s hope-filled conclusion, middle-school
readers will be drawn into the poignant odyssey of 14-year-old Burl
Crow, who lives with his pill-popping mother and abusive, drunken father
about 50 kilometres north of Sudbury, Ontario. One day Burl stumbles
upon an isolated cabin occupied by Nathaniel Orlando Gow, aka NOG, a
world-famous but highly eccentric concert pianist and conductor, who has
hidden himself away from an intrusive world in order to compose an
oratorio. Though the pair spend only a day together and the Glenn
Gould-like NOG dies shortly after, the meeting launches Burl on a
physical and emotional journey.

Wynne-Jones not only populates Burl’s world with strong supporting
characters, like bush pilot Bea Clifford and teacher Natalie Agnew, but
he also effectively reproduces settings that range from a teeming
Toronto to the solitude of a northern bush lake. Highly recommended.