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WORK TITLE: No Sad Songs
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1979?
WEBSITE: https://frankmorelliwrites.com/
CITY: Greensboro
STATE: NC
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born c. 1979.
EDUCATION:Albright College, B.A.; National University, M.F.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Teacher, coach, sports writer, fiction and essay writer. Westchester Country Day School, High Point, NY, teacher; Summit School, teacher; writer of “Peanuts & Crackerjacks” column for Change Seven.
WRITINGS
Contributor of fiction and essays to publications, including Saturday Evening Post, Cobalt Review, Philadelphia Stories, Jersey Devil Press, Indiana Voice Journal, Highlights for Children, Stories for Children, and Change Seven.
SIDELIGHTS
Teacher, coach, and sports reporter Frank Morelli has published fiction, essays, and young adult stories in numerous publications, including Saturday Evening Post, Cobalt Review, Highlights for Children, and Philadelphia Stories, and he writes the sports column “Peanuts & Crackerjacks” for Change Seven. He grew up in Philadelphia and now makes his home in Greensboro, North Carolina. He holds an English degree from Albright College, M.F.A. in fiction from National University, and was a teaching fellow in New York City.
In 2018, Morelli published the young adult novel, No Sad Songs. In the 1990s, eighteen-year-old Gabe LoScuda’s parents have died in a car accident leaving Gabe to care for his grandfather who is suffering from dementia. Because Gabe’s father vowed never to put Grandpa into a nursing home, Gabe takes up the arduous task of caring for the erratic and sometimes self-destructive senior, while he tries to carry on a normal life with his best friend John Chen and getting up enough courage to talk to girls. Gabe thinks he will finally get some help with Grandpa when his long-lost Uncle Nick shows up and moves in, yet Nick proves to be a deadbeat. Helping Gabe emotionally is his new friend Sofia, a punk-rock loving girl he meets at the veteran’s hospital. In an interview online at Touch My Spine Book Reviews, Morelli explained his inspiration for writing the book: “I wrote it as a way to exorcise the demons of watching my own father take care of my grandfather when I was a teen. To this day, I wrestle with the question: did I do enough to help my father?”
“Although the subject matter is heavy at times, the author uses humor to keep the story going,” observed Davia Schmidt in School Library Journal, adding that Morelli phenomenally portrays teen angst and struggle. A writer in Kirkus Reviews praised Gabe’s character, saying: “Gabe’s dynamic and real—he’s fiercely loyal and an ardent fan of poetry—but everyone else falls prey to tropes.” According to Reinhardt Suarez in Booklist, “Morelli imbues Gabe with a strong narrative voice that shows his strength and his stubbornness,” adding that Gabe’s evolving relationship with his uncle is especially poignant and that the book is full of heart and humor. In Voice of Youth Advocates, Beth Karpas commented: “Morelli’s writing is serious as well, but he infuses it with poetic imagery and a sense of humor.” Karpas also noted that the book is beautifully written as it intersperses first-person narrative with thoughtful entries from Gabe’s journal.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, February 1, 2018, Reinhardt Suarez, review of No Sad Songs, p. 57.
Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2018, review of No Sad Songs.
School Library Journal, February 2018, Davia Schmidt, review of No Sad Songs, p. 106.
Voice of Youth Advocates, April 2018, Beth Karpas, review of No Sad Songs, p. 62.
ONLINE
Touch My Spine Book Reviews, https://touchmyspinebookreviews.com/ (February 10, 2018), review of No Sad Songs.
FRANK MORELLI has been a teacher, a coach, a bagel builder, a stock boy, a pretzel salesman, a bus driver, a postal employee, a JC Penney model (see: clerk), an actual clerk (like in the movie of the same name), a camp counselor, a roving sports reporter, and a nuclear physicist (okay, maybe that’s not true). At heart, he’s a writer, and that’s all he’s ever been. His fiction and essays have appeared in more than thirty publications, including The Saturday Evening Post, Cobalt Review, Philadelphia Stories, Jersey Devil Press, and Indiana Voice Journal. His sports-themed column—“Peanuts & Crackerjacks”—appears monthly at Change Seven Magazine.
A Philadelphia native, Frank now lives near Greensboro, NC in a tiny house under the trees with his best friend and muse, their obnoxious alley cats, and two hundred pounds worth of dog.
FRANK MORELLI has been a teacher, a coach, a bagel builder, a stock boy, a pretzel salesman, a bus driver, a postal employee, a JC Penney model (see: clerk), an actual clerk (like in the movie of the same name), a camp counselor, a roving sports reporter, and a nuclear physicist (okay, maybe that’s not true). At heart, he’s a writer, and that’s all he’s ever been. His fiction and essays have appeared in more than thirty publications, including The Saturday Evening Post, Cobalt Review, Philadelphia Stories, Jersey Devil Press, and Indiana Voice Journal. His sports-themed column—“Peanuts & Crackerjacks”—appears monthly at Change Seven Magazine. A Philadelphia native, Frank now lives near Greensboro, NC in a tiny house under the trees with his best friend and muse, their obnoxious alley cats, and two hundred pounds worth of dog. Connect with Frank at www.frankmorelliwrites.com, on Facebook, or on Twitter @frankmoewriter.
Although you’ll never catch Frank Morelli without a baseball hat on his head, he has actually worn various hats in his time. He’s been a teacher, a coach, a bagel builder, a stock boy, a pretzel salesman, a bus driver, a postal employee, a JC Penney model (see: clerk), an actual clerk (like in the movie of the same name), a camp counselor, a roving sports reporter, and a nuclear physicist (okay, that’s not true). At heart, he’s a writer, and that’s all he’s ever been.
His short fiction and essays have appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, Philadelphia Stories, Jersey Devil Press, Change Seven Magazine, and Indiana Voice Journal, among others. His short story “In the Pen” was shortlisted for the 2015 Earl Weaver Prize, awarded annually by Cobalt Review. He was named a finalist in the 11th Annual NYC Midnight Short Story Competition. He has written numerous articles and essays for the young adult and children’s market, including features in Highlights for Children Magazine, Stories for Children, and in various kid-friendly titles from the Chicken Soup series.
Morelli has never been a federal judge, but he hopes to play one on TV.
Frank is a Philadelphia native who grew up across the Walt Whitman Bridge in South Jersey. He graduated from Albright College with a degree in English, and moved to New York City to become a teaching fellow. He earned an MFA in Fiction from National University while living in a tiny house under the trees with his best friend and muse, their three obnoxious alley cats, and about two hundred pounds of dog.
*Interview With Frank Morelli ~Author of No Sad Songs*
February 10, 2018Dani☆Touch My Spine Book Reviews☆49 Comments
on *Interview With Frank Morelli ~Author of No Sad Songs*
Hello lovelies! I hope everyone is having a fantabulous weekend! Today I wanted to share an interview with you with an author that I became to admire, Frank Morelli. I am currently reading his novel, No Sad Songs, and I am totally fangirling over it! Not only do I love Frank’s writing style, Frank is an interesting and good person. He is always ready to take the extra step for his readers and be more involved in whatever way he can. Frank can also be found on his WordPress site @ https://frankmorelliwrites.com I loved the results of this interview and I hope you enjoy learning more about him and his upcoming novel, No Sad Songs. I will start with the synopsis of No Sad Songs and then we will get to learning more about the author behind the book!😍
Following a family tragedy, eighteen-year-old Gabe LoScuda suddenly finds himself thrust into the role of caregiver for his ailing grandfather.
Between the shopping trips and the doctor visits with Grandpa, Gabe and his friend John try to salvage their senior year, meet girls, and make the varsity baseball team.
It doesn’t take long for Gabe to realize that going to school and looking after a grandfather with Alzheimer’s is more work than he ever imagined. And when long-lost Uncle Nick appears on the scene, Gabe soon finds that living with Nick and Grandpa is like babysitting two grown men.
Aside from John, the only person who truly understands Gabe is Sofia, a punk-rocking rebel he meets at the veteran’s hospital.When these three unlikely friends are faced with a serious dilemma, will they do what it takes to save Grandpa?
If there’s a chance of preserving the final shreds of Grandpa’s dignity, Gabe may have to make the most gut-wrenching decision of his life—and there’s no way out.
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Frank Morelli, Author of No Sad Songs
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I’m from the Philadelphia area originally, but now I live just outside of Greensboro, NC with my best friend/partner in crime/chief critic, Alexandra, and our crazy gang of cats and dogs. We don’t have any children, but we’re passionate about rescuing animals, so the second we bought a house with a big, wooded backyard we adopted lots of pets. At the moment, we have two doggies (Stan and Brooklyn) and two cats (Jackie and Henry Aaron). Both of us are massive baseball fans, so we named our buddies after some of our favorite players and baseball towns. We spend the vast majority of our time reading, writing, editing, and cooking.
Can you tell us about your upcoming book?
No Sad Songs is the story of Gabe LoScuda, a high school senior who loses his parents and is forced to take on the role of caregiver for his ailing grandfather, an Alzheimer’s patient. The story is definitely close to my heart because I wrote it as a way to exorcise the demons of watching my own father take care of my grandfather when I was a teen. To this day, I wrestle with the question: did I do enough to help my father? It’s the exact kind of conflict Gabe battles throughout the book, as we watch him struggle to be a student, a caretaker, an adult and a kid all at the same time. No Sad Songs a story about our innate sense of duty that, as humans, we often allow to override the very essence of our lives…even when it becomes clear that our help is no longer making a dent. It’s a feeling that Alzheimer’s caretakers deal with everyday. And there are over 15 million of them–family members of the afflicted–right now in this country as I write this line.
What do you do when you are not writing?
I’m a naturally active person and writing is one of the most sedentary professions on the planet, so I try to spend my off time doing things that involve exercise. Writing is also a solitary act and it makes me miss being part of a team. My solution has been to never stop playing the sports I love. On teams. With old guys. My knees and my back are not fans of this strategy, but if I lather up with enough Tiger Balm I’m good for a few games of ice hockey a week at the local rink. Believe me, all the bumps and bruises are worth it when you find something that prevents you from ever forgetting what it feels like to be a kid.
Do you have a day job as well?
I’m a teacher by day and a writer in the early morning and late at night. Like the vast majority of writers, I find the balancing act of work life and writing life to be a constant struggle. There’s not much time for sleep. That said, I’ve been teaching for fifteen years and I wouldn’t trade a day of it for anything in the world. Teaching and coaching middle and high school aged students is part of what I was put on this planet to do, and my experiences in the classroom are exactly what allowed me to see how my writing style and my mindset are best suited for communicating with a young adult audience. On top of all that, I learn from my students on a daily basis. They see through the nonsense adults often get mired in. They understand truth, justice, and balance. I firmly believe today’s brand of teenager is what has made the young adult book market so influential in recent years. They are discerning and smart, and I feel honored when I can use my experience to help them avoid the obstacles that may lie in their paths.
When did you first start writing and when did you finish your first book?
I didn’t really know it at the time, but I probably started writing when I was about seven or eight years old. That’s when I became annoyed at the limitations of the original Nintendo Game System and decided it was my duty to rewrite the book on just about every video game ever invented. As far as I know, none of my game ideas ever made it to prime time, most likely because I squirreled them away and never showed them to anyone besides my younger brother. I also wrote some really terrible poetry in high school. But it wasn’t until college that I started treating writing more like a career choice. I got into journalism and wrote sports stories for various local newspapers, and then I moved to New York City to chase a job in publishing. But sitting in a cubicle wasn’t my idea of the writing life, so I became a NYC Public School teacher and began spending my summers writing for about ten hours a day. For fifteen years! I spent most of my time writing short stories, flash fiction and essays. I finally took the plunge into writing novels about five years ago. No Sad Songs took about two years start to finish.
How did you choose the genre you write in? Where do you get your ideas?
I wouldn’t say I chose the genre I write in. It definitely chose me. I spent a long time spinning my wheels and writing across many different genres, until it finally dawned on me: why don’t I take what I do in the classroom and translate it into what I do on the page? The first chapter of No Sad Songs is literally the first piece of young adult fiction I’ve ever written. It’s not a long chapter. Only a few pages. But as soon as I wrote the last word of the first draft of that very first chapter, I just knew. Falling into my niche and finding that focus has made all the difference. As far as where I get my ideas, I think most writers would agree that you need to write what you know. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to write an autobiography. It just means your personal experiences need to bleed out on the page and dictate the directions you plan to take your characters. It’s the only way to create reality within a fantasy.
Do you ever experience writer’s block?
Not anymore, but that’s only because I stopped believing in the concept of writer’s block. When you get to the point where you have deadlines to meet, whether self-imposed or thrust upon you by an editor, there’s really no time for writer’s block. You can’t sit around sipping drinks and waiting for inspiration if you ever want to finish something as complicated as a novel. You have to sit down in the chair everyday and write, even when it feels like all you’re doing is splattering gibberish on the page. Some of my best writing has come in these moments, and it makes you realize writer’s block only happens when you’re fighting against yourself. When this happens in a baseball game, a coach would tell his hitter, “You’re gripping the bat too hard.” When it happens to a writer, the writer has become the hitter and the coach.
Do you work with an outline, or just write?
When I first started writing short stories I was so against the idea of planning a story ahead of time. It was like a cardinal sin to me. It was also an example of short-sighting thinking. You might be able to write something short without a road map, but if you’re trying to write a novel you better know your final destination and every point in between. My pre-planning process has become increasingly more complicated over the years. I probably spend about two months creating and refining my characters, charting plot points, building believable settings, and doing miscellaneous research before I ever write the first word in chapter one. I create a master outline for the novel ahead of time and then break that down into smaller outlines for each individual chapter as I get to them. With that said, I try to keep my outlines basic so I’m not overly locked into anything and I still have freedom to create on the page. It seems to work for me, but I’m continually trying to refine my process and make it work better.
Is there any particular author or book that influenced you in any way either growing up or as an adult? What inspired you to become an author?
J.D. Salinger’s A Catcher in the Rye and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are the books that made me fall in love with reading when I was growing up. I didn’t know why at the time, but I’m now sure it’s because of the unique and authentic narrative voices created by both authors. I love voice. If I can hear a narrator’s voice in my head long after putting the book down, I’m basically in love. I think the voices of Holden Caulfield and Scout Finch play on a loop in the heads of many young adult authors. Certainly mine. The desire to be able to create a voice like one of these was definitely one of the things that inspired me to become an author, but there are so many others. I guess they all boil down to one thing: I love the idea of creating worlds that presumably go on without us between the covers of a book.
Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first book published?
Getting a book published is not easy. The competition is insane and the chances for rejection are plentiful. I lost count of how many times I’ve been rejected by agents, publishers, or editors. If you want to write, you have to learn to live with rejection. But it never gets easier to accept a rejection. To me, that’s the hardest part of getting anything published, whether it be a piece of flash fiction, an essay, or a two-thousand page novel. If you’re able to continue believing in your work and push on to the next submission, you’ll find the right person who will champion your book. Jon Wilson at Fish Out of Water Books was that person for me and I’m so thankful we found each other.
If you had to go back and do it all over, is there any aspect of your novel or getting it published that you would change?
I wouldn’t change a thing about the book. No Sad Songs, as it stands, is exactly what I set out to write and I believe in it. I’m proud of what I created. The only thing I’d change is that I’d go into the process with a better awareness of the business side of things. Making blurb requests and seeking out press opportunities and finding reviews…these are not easy things to do. They consume time and they stop you from creating new work. But they’re essential if you ever want readers out there to know your book exists. Anticipating these steps on my next go around will definitely help me to find a better balance and build more buzz before the release date.
How do you market your work?
Social media is a major tool, but I also try to keep my name visible in as many venues as possible. I continue to write short stories for publications like The Saturday Evening Post and I contribute a monthly column to Change Seven Magazine. Fish Out of Water Books also helps me to secure reviews and press in newspapers, blogs and other publications. I also have a bunch of public appearances coming up over the next few months. There’s really no better way to connect with your audience than by reading your work to them in a live setting. You can find a listing of my upcoming events here.
What avenues have you found to work best for your genre?
I think young adult literature thrives on the examination of current social issues. Whether a story is set in a present-day high school or in some far-away galaxy, I think a novel written for young adults must still focus on the issues that affect our youth in the current time. That’s one of the reasons why I felt it was important to write No Sad Songs, because Alzheimer’s isn’t just a disease that affects the old. It affects all of us.
Have you written a book you love that you have not been able to get published?
A few years ago I abandoned a horror novel that took place in a real ghost town in Pennsylvania. The town of Centralia was a coal mining boom town that was officially evacuated back in the late 1980s after a mine fire had been raging under it for almost thirty years. The place is still on fire as we speak. I went to college not too far from the town and it fascinated me, so I tried to build a story around it, but I could never pull the threads together enough to gain any interest. It’s definitely a story that haunts me a little. I have a feeling I haven’t seen the last of it.
What is your favorite book? I know this is always a difficult question!
This is an easy one for me. It’s Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Hands down. Atticus Finch is possibly my favorite character in all of literature.
Thanks for checking out my interview with Frank Morelli! Please leave your thoughts and comments!😍 Love ya guys!
My name is Frank Morelli and I'm a young adult author with a debut novel, NO SAD SONGS, that just hit shelves on February 20. It deals with Alzheimer's and dementia caregivers...and also punk rock, poetry, and baseball. AMA!
Frank Morelli
Young Adult Author of NO SAD SONGS
My grandfather battled Alzheimer’s for eight long years. That’s not an insignificant amount of time in anyone’s life. What it meant for me was that I watched my grandfather deteriorate for about twenty-five percent of my life. There’s a real sense of helplessness and loss that pushes down on you when you watch a slow deterioration like that. At the same time, there’s an overpowering weight of responsibility that drives most caregivers to keep pushing on no matter the price.
The Alzheimer’s Association estimates almost a quarter of a million people will be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia in the next year alone. Currently, more than five million people are living with Alzheimer’s and, by 2050, this number could grow to over sixteen million. Alzheimer’s disease is actually the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. But it’s the only cause of death among the top ten in the United States that cannot be prevented, cured or even slowed. In fact, one out of every three seniors dies with some form Alzheimer’s or dementia.
What many fail to recognize is how their family members (the caretakers) may also have their lives derailed by the disease. Right now, more than fifteen million Americans provide unpaid care for people with Alzheimer’s or other dementias.
It is my hope that young readers will finish No Sad Songs with a new respect for what it takes to be a caregiver, and an understanding of how intertwined these duties become in the lives of people fighting on the front lines of a growing health dilemma that is rapidly approaching epidemic levels. And I want them to be inspired to become champions in the fight against this terrible disease so that future generations will never have to watch their loved ones disappear right before their eyes.
I'd love to answer your questions about my personal experiences with caregivers of dementia patients, my writing process, my new book, or really anything at all you'd like to know about me! Ask away!
Southbound: Focus on craft has led to explosion of work for local writer
By Lisa O’Donnell Winston-Salem Journal Jan 3, 2018 (3)
Buy Now
High Point writer Frank Morelli with a copy of his soon-to-be-released novel, “No Sad Songs,” at the Bookmarks store.
David Rolfe/Journal
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To make it as a writer, Frank Morelli had to move far from New York City, the publishing capital of the world.
A Philadelphia, Penn., native, Morelli grew up in south New Jersey, impressing his teachers with his writing ability.
“After I graduated (from college), I decided I wanted to try to make it in the big city and moved to New York,” said Morelli, 39. “I had this dream that I would be this famous magazine writer. I wound up sitting in a cubicle, doing a lot of editing.”
He answered an ad to become a teaching fellow in New York City’s public schools, finding he enjoyed teaching writing and literature to middle-school aged kids.
“I met a girl and decided to live a quieter life, a more affordable life,” Morelli said. “We looked up and down the East Coast and North Carolina kept coming up for us. Moving down here has been one of the better decisions I ever made. It allowed me to gain focus and not worry about making enough money to live in a one-bedroom apartment, and to concentrate on my craft.”
He worked for Westchester Country Day School in High Point, where he lives, then took a job at Summit School, where he eventually became a writer-in-residence, which freed him to write.
The result is “No Sad Songs,” a young-adult fiction novel about a teenager caring for his ailing grandfather. It will be published on Feb. 20 by Fish Out of Water Books, a publishing house in Michigan.
“No Sad Songs” is available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Morelli will be at Bookmarks, 634 W. Fourth St., in March as part of a local authors series.
Q: How would you describe your art?
Answer: My art is accessible, light-hearted, and humorous in its handling of pressing, sometimes controversial, issues that face us as a society. I write mainly for young adults and middle grade students, and I’ve found during my 15 years in a middle school classroom that one must find a way to channel the teen that still resides within if there’s ever a chance of communicating effectively with this audience. Young adults and pre-teens are adept readers with complex and shifting perspectives that often swirl around in a hailstorm of new choices and new experiences, so my art is never an attempt to speak down to these impressive, young minds from atop my soapbox. Instead, it’s a give and take.
Q: How have you evolved as an artist?
Answer: When I began this journey, I was convinced I would write a few short stories and the powers that be would notice my insane talent, and I’d be living on a private island before the age of 30. I didn’t have any real routines in place to keep my butt in the chair writing. Over the past five years I’ve taken a completely different approach. I’ve begun to treat writing as a serious career instead of a mere hobby. Now I set strict goals and force myself to sit down and write on a daily basis, even when there’s not an ounce of inspiration in me. I’ve learned to spend almost 90 percent of my time doing revisions and that a first draft is just what it sounds like: a first step on a staircase of at least 50 more. I also went back to school and completed an MFA, which allowed me to be part of a real writing community and receive regular feedback on my work. All of these adjustments helped me to become much more intentional in my process. The result has been an explosion of completed work over the past two years.
Q: Who has influenced your art?
Answer: As many writers will tell you, I’ve been blessed to run into the right teachers and professors at the right times. When I look back, there’s no denying that writing and creating have always been valued parts of my life. I can remember sitting in my room as an 8 or 9-year-old reading “Tom Sawyer” or paging through National Geographic books from my grandfather’s barbershop. I used to sit up there at my desk and write new storylines to my favorite video games, complete with the most awful pencil sketches you’ve ever seen, and I’d store them all in a barrel-shaped piggy bank I’d won on the Jersey boardwalk. Never put a dime in that bank, but it was always overflowing with crinkled pages. And terrible drawings. Even though I swore to my parents I’d become a pediatrician, maybe even the next Doogie Howser, they continued to encourage my creative streak up to and including this very day. On top of this, I was blessed to meet the perfect woman who not only has the guts to tell me when my work misses the mark, but who also endures all of the late-night writing crunches and impromptu brainstorming sessions.
Now, are there other writers I’d claim as influences? Sure. I’d have to add Twain, Hemingway, Sherman Alexie, J.D. Salinger, S.E. Hinton and Harper Lee to that list.
Q: What is your biggest challenge?
Answer: The act of writing and publishing work is long and arduous. I feel like there’s never enough time in the day to get all the words I have in my head down on the page. Working full time adds to the challenge, especially since I’m a competitive person. I often see my weekly writing goals washed out by work-life responsibilities or by life itself, which is never easy for me to accept. A 30-hour day would be fine by me.
Q: What does art do for you?
Answer: Art in all of its forms is my life-blood. I can lose myself for hours in a place like SECCA, admiring sculptures and oil paintings and finding myself amazed at the many inventive mediums used by visual artists today. Music and poetry have always played behind my life as a sort of bass line, which is why they’re featured so prominently in my novel. But writing, to me, is the vital organ. It’s not only a venue where I go to entertain and communicate with readers. It’s the place I go to help me make sense of this crazy, beautiful world we live in.
Q: Any advice for other artists?
Answer: Create your art for no other reason than to bring your ideas into the world. Don’t do it for fame or fortune or because you want to prove something to other people. Do it because you love it and because it makes you feel incredible when you paint the last brush stroke or strike the final note or write the closing line. That’s what we’ve been doing as a species since the beginning of time. Be proud to be part of that tradition. If you live your artist’s life in this way, there’s a good chance everything else will fall into place. Have faith and keep working.
Morelli, Frank. No Sad Songs
Beth Karpas
Voice of Youth Advocates. 41.1 (Apr. 2018): p62.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
Full Text:
5Q * 3P * M * J * S
Morelli, Frank. No Sad Songs. Fish Out of Water Books, February 2018. 228p. $12.99 Trade pb. 978-0-9899087-4-0.
Gabe LoScuda, high school senior, has known that his grandfather's Alzheimer's is getting worse, but he never could have guessed that his parents would die suddenly in a car crash, leaving him as his grandfather's sole caregiver. When Grandpa takes Gabes car for a joy ride and hits a child, words like promise and responsibility take on entirely new meanings. He could never have predicted the near-catastrophic results of trying to keep a promise to his father, or the consequences of his own infamy.
Beautifully written, this book intersperses a first-person narrative with introspective essays from Gabe's English journal, which tie bits of poetry to memories of his childhood. Dejan Stojanovic's Simplicity leads to reminiscence of his dad's love of baseball. Frost is the link to understanding his grandfather. Stevenson's My Kingdom reveals a time when Gabe succumbed to peer pressure and built his own "crummy kingdom." Gabe is facing serious challenges between his grandfather's quickly progressing disease and his own possible jail time. Morelli's writing is serious as well, but he infuses it with poetic imagery and a sense of humor. Gabe describes "nightmares where I'm trapped inside a Tetris board and all the falling shapes are Grandpa's pills raining down on me" and muses about a "Useless Language Hospital" where his Latin teacher "could perform emergency verb conjugation surgeries." Set in the 1990s, this is a timeless story of coming-of-age while watching loved ones fade into age.--Beth Karpas.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Karpas, Beth. "Morelli, Frank. No Sad Songs." Voice of Youth Advocates, Apr. 2018, p. 62. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A536746163/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ad33bf9b. Accessed 14 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A536746163
No Sad Songs
Reinhardt Suarez
Booklist. 114.11 (Feb. 1, 2018): p57.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
No Sad Songs. By Frank Morelli, Feb. 2018. 228p. Fish Out of Water, paper, $12.99 (9780989908740). Gr. 9-12.
Before the car accident that took away his parents, Gabe was an average kid with a penchant for baseball and a cringe-worthy awkwardness around girls. Now Gabe finds himself the sole guardian of his grandfather, who suffers from a form of Alzheimer's. Gabe's life descends into chaos, exacerbated by the sudden appearance of his father's prodigal brother, Nick. Only his best friend John Chen and a punky hospital urchin named Sofia keep Gabe going, even when his love for his grandfather threatens his own future. Morelli imbues Gabe with a strong narrative voice that shows his strength and his stubbornness. Suddenly thrust into a parenting role, Gabe ardently resists advice to commit his grandfather to a care facility, despite Gabe's inability to properly care for him. Especially poignant is Gabe's evolving relationship with his uncle Nick, a deadbeat whose checkered past only adds to Gabe's hardships. Full of heart and humor, this will make young readers take stock of their own parents' responsibilities, and what it means to make sacrifices for the ones you love.--Reinhardt Suarez
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Suarez, Reinhardt. "No Sad Songs." Booklist, 1 Feb. 2018, p. 57. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A527771942/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=3c79d8f4. Accessed 14 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A527771942
Morelli, Frank: NO SAD SONGS
Kirkus Reviews. (Jan. 15, 2018):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
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Full Text:
Morelli, Frank NO SAD SONGS Fish Out of Water Books (Children's Fiction) $12.99 2, 20 ISBN: 978-0-9899087-4-0
After the deaths of his parents, a boy is left to care for his ill grandfather.
Eighteen-year-old white teen Gabe LoScuda just wants to play video games with his buddy John Chen, a first-generation Chinese-American, and pine over a girl at school. But his life is turned upside down when his parents are killed in a car accident. Suddenly he's forced to take care of his grandfather, who's addled by Pick's disease, a form of dementia, and prone to violent outbursts. Gabe remembers his father promising never to send the old man away, so he does the same. At his parents' funeral, Gabe's estranged uncle, Nick, appears and offers to move in, proving to be more couch potato than help. In a hospital waiting room, Gabe meets Sofia, a Mexican-American tattoo artist and lover of punk music. The two build a rapport, and things begin to look up until Grandpa's unpredictable behavior puts the tenuous balance in jeopardy. And Gabe will do anything, even ruin his own future, to keep anyone from taking Grandpa away. As a character, Gabe's dynamic and real--he's fiercely loyal and an ardent fan of poetry--but everyone else falls prey to tropes. It's Gabe's dedication to his family despite the pain they cause him that elevates an otherwise predictable story.
An uneven love song to the hardships of caring for ailing family. (Fiction. 14-18)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Morelli, Frank: NO SAD SONGS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A522643014/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=28331c18. Accessed 14 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A522643014
MORELLI, Frank. No Sad Songs
Davia Schmidt
School Library Journal. 64.2 (Feb. 2018): p106.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
MORELLI, Frank. No Sad Songs. 216p. Fish Out of the Water. Feb. 2018. pap. $12.99. ISBN 9780989908740.
Gr 9 Up--A story of a young man's accelerated journey of self-discovery. Gabe LoScuda is an average teen. Not popular but not a loner either, he navigates high school with his mind on basketball practice, hanging out with his best friend John, and figuring out how to ask out the prettiest girl in school. When his parents take an overnight trip to Atlantic City to celebrate their wedding anniversary, what was meant to be one evening of caring for his grandfather, who has dementia, turns into forever. Gabe wakes to a phone call that changes his life completely, finding out that his parents have died in a car accident. He is meant to care for his grandfather, but this is a fulltime job that he cannot manage on his own. When his uncle insists on helping, Gabe has no other choice than to accept the offer. His uncle proves to be an alcoholic unable to watch his grandfather and becomes another person Gabe has to look after. Morelli phenomenally portrays the teen's angst and struggles. Although the subject matter is heavy at times, the author uses humor to keep the story going. Readers will be engaged with this unique novel written with chapters that alternate with Gabe's essays and memories. VERDICT This coming-of age tale is a must for any YA collection.--Davia Schmidt, Queens Public Library, NY
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Schmidt, Davia. "MORELLI, Frank. No Sad Songs." School Library Journal, Feb. 2018, p. 106. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A526734134/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=6240e772. Accessed 14 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A526734134