It's a feel-good book but there were a few things that were annoying and took me out of the story. As the girl struggled with her feelings of wanting to play the drums and lacking the skill to do it; same question over and over again came to my mind: "what year is this?" At first I placed it in the 1980s then with the mention of certain bands I had to update it to the 90s. Then it mention the financial crisis and recession of the early 2000s specifically the bank crisis and recession of 2008. At that point I said to myself if this is 2009 why in the world is she not at the library every day studying YouTube?!?! EVERY young child in today's world knows that's how you where you go to learn things for free.

All that being said I rather enjoyed the story. She had trouble with being brave and her biggest obstacle was truly herself. Remembering that she was 12 helps to keep a lot of her emotional turmoil into perspective. I thought it was rather odd to throw in the parents separating at the end, however I suppose that was better than just a Disney ending.