Sounding Off

Darleen R. Golke is a high-school teacher-librarian in Abbotsford, B.C.

A writer, musician, performer, and teacher, Staunton offers this sequel
to his 1998 Hope Springs a Leak. Now 14 years old and entering Grade 9
at Hope Springs High, Sam Foster has stretched to six feet two inches
but weighs only 130 pounds, a self-described “overly long T-ball
stand.” His best friend, Darryl, behaving in an uncharacteristically
mean way, jams a crash helmet over Sam’s headphones and the helmet
refuses to come off, although “an absolutely incandescent note” sung
by contestant Madison Dakota at the annual Hope Springs Fall Fair
vibrates and loosens the helmet momentarily and engages Sam’s interest
permanently. Sam is lost, a condition of “love and lust together,”
and launches Operation Babe Find, determined to find the elusive
Madison, only later to find her unexpectedly close to home.

A visiting composer, O. Sidney Glebe, helps remove the helmet by using
tuning forks and later engages Sam in a project to record various sounds
around town to be used in his planned opus. The music theme runs
throughout the novel, starting with Sam’s alternative/grunge trio,
continuing with the adult–teen nine-member band Sam’s father and
music teacher persuade Sam and his friends to join, and culminating in
Sidney Glebe’s Hope Springs Suite at Canada Day celebrations.

With the age-appropriate humour that characterized earlier works,
Staunton episodically follows Sam as he “sounds off” about the highs
and lows of his ninth-grade year. Sam is an engagingly muddled and
insecure teen who demonstrates good instincts that help him cope with
the quandaries he faces daily. Using well-paced action, snappy and
realistic dialogue, and a familiar cast of characters, Staunton presents
an entertaining novel. Recommended.