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An Audience of One
According to a recent Harris poll, there are fifty million amateur musicians in America, one-third of whom play the piano. The chances of any of these achieving professional status, let alone fame, is minuscule. Yet children continue taking lessons, hoping they will be among the chosen few. Heather Silverman is one of these. Beginning her studies at age nine, an already advanced age for serious musical training, she aspires to be a concert pianist. This novel traces her search for encouragement, recognition, and opportunity as she grows from a talented but undisciplined fifteen-year old to the time of her high school graduation, an aspiring professional on the way to the Juilliard School of Music. In this period of time, she has joined a select group of young musicians in Chicago and attended Interlochen Music Camp, there winning the fiercely challenged Concert Competition. She has also performed as a soloist with her high school orchestra and in the final chapters, visited Salzburg, Austria as accompanist for her elite high school Chorale. These small triumphs are won through great effort and many obstacles. Her stepmother, only nine years her senior, tries to mold Heather from being a free spirit to that of a suburban young lady. Meanwhile, Heather's father always seems to take the stepmothers side in every argument. Follow the developments after Heather runs away from home and then returns. Follow the relationship changes with her father, stepmother, best friend, and boyfriend as she struggles to balance fierce ambition with being a normal teen.
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The Two Percent Miracle
Linda and Warren Benjamin are living the American Dream in their middle-class suburban cocoon outside the city of Chicago. These basically decent and moral people find their lives shattered when their third child and first son is born with hydrocephalus -- water on the brain. Bravely, the parents insist that baby Jason (whose name means "one who heals") be given every opportunity for normalcy even though the doctors have predicted only a two-percent chance for survival beyond the age of ten. Almost too fearful to hope, the parents sign permission for surgery and a shunt is inserted into the baby's skull to drain off the excess fluids. The rest of the story traces Jason's development, going from hospital to nursing home to finally live with his family. Follow the story of love and fortitude as ordinary people struggle with a special needs child within the every day events involving work, home and school.
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