Oh My Stars by Lorna Landvik

Violet Mathers, is a child of the depression years, abandoned by her mother, unloved by her father, and loses her hand on her sixteenth birthday. Bitter, she boards a bus, determined to reach California and the Golden Gate Bridge, and is way-laid in North Dakota when the bus runs into a tree. Small communities being what they are, the passengers were parceled out to homes in the community, and Violet shares the home of Kjel (pronounced Shell) Hedstrom's parents and his friend Austin Sykes (a Negro). Landvik carries the reader along through the years as the three friends develop their relationship, and share their quest to make a new kind of music. Heart warming and encouraging, a great read. Sandy Penton.