What do you hold on to when you feel like you’re drowning?
It starts with the gift. Please don’t judge me, but I could tell by the shape and size of the box that it wasn’t a ukulele and I felt a little piece of my soul start to drown.
Meet Minerva. Minerva Watson wants a ukulele for her 16th birthday. What the aspiring songwriter gets instead is a shocking invitation from her long-lost father to reconnect. The secrets she discovers about family, friends, music, and herself will keep you turning the pages and hoping she will find a way to keep breathing and…maybe…actually…finally… get happy.
Songs from Get Happy
I wrote the words and music for the six songs that appear in the book and invited 16-year-old Jamey Geston to perform them. Here is the first song. See Get Happy Songs for all of the videos, a free songbook with lyrics and chords, video tips for learning how to play the songs, and more.
Early Reviews:
Studio System News, a Hollywood film industry newsletter, lists Get Happy in the top seven upcoming books of 2014-2015 and calls it a “dramatic teen romance.”
Kirkus says: “Veteran Amato skillfully infuses her tale with moments of teenage angst, jealousy, disenchantment, humor and love. Hits a deep, sweet resonating note.”
Your Comments:
I am here to tell you all about how much I loved Get Happy by Mary Amato and how…well…happy, it made feel…The first thing I must mention about this book are the songs…this book is the kind of book that has songs that fit perfectly, you can truly feel like the main character is writing the songs as the things in her life happen and it just made me feel like I was inside Taylor Swift’s head for a minute (because I love Taylor Swift and if Minerva is going to remind me of anyone, it should be her…but with an ukulele)…as a daughter of divorced parents, I can 100% say that the feeling of not wanting to just accept someone who left when you were so young back into your life is real, you feel abandoned and you feel like if they didn’t fight for you back then they don’t deserve you now and that’s something the author portrays very well in the book.-Marifer
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