Echo

Pam Muñoz Ryan was born on Christmas Day in Bakersfield, California. From an early age, she took an interest in reading and spending time in the library, and she also took lessons in piano and violin. She went on to attend San Diego State University and marry James Ryan in 1975. After having four children and working for a time as an early childhood teacher, she went back to school to get a graduate degree in children’s literature. Since then, she has gone on to write over 40 books, ranging from picture books to early readers, middle grade novels, and young adult novels. One of her most noteworthy books is Esperanza Rising (2000), a work of historical fiction that is now regularly included in school curriculums. Her 2015 novel Echo was also a bestseller and received a Newbery Honor. She continues to write and lives near San Diego with her family.

The three interwoven stories in Echo all respond to World War II, which began in 1939 and ended in 1945. Adolph Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933, when Friedrich’s story begins. Following this, Hitler immediately consolidated power and established a dictatorship. The Nazi party sought to elevate the supposedly perfect Aryan race by eliminating anyone deemed inferior, namely Jewish people but also LGBTQ people, people with physical or intellectual disabilities, and the Romani people. World War II began when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, though the United States didn’t join the war effort until after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. This led to an increase in anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States, culminating in the establishment of Japanese internment camps throughout the country. Japanese families were imprisoned there for years, and as Echo describes, this led to most Japanese-owned farms in California being sold or otherwise seized from their Japanese owners. Ivy’s story is based on this history, as well as the history of activism in support of desegregating schools. Author Pam Muñoz Ryan specifically mentions the school desegregation court case Roberto Alvarez v. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District from 1931 as an inspiration for Ivy’s story and the conditions in her school district.

Although novels for younger readers have been around for a long time, the development of formal categories of books based on age range, like early readers, middle grade novels, and young adult novels, is relatively recent. Echo is a middle grade novel, which means it’s aimed at preteen readers roughly ages 8 to 12. One of the formative writers in this genre and age range is Judy Blume, whose books like Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing helped establish a template of middle-grade novels that deal with preteen issues while also exploring broader social and cultural topics. Echo and Pam Muñoz Ryan’s other books are sometimes categorized as multicultural, as they deal with cultures and perspectives less frequently represented in American children’s fiction. Some other noteworthy multicultural children’s historical fiction novels include Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson and The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 and Bud, Not Buddy, both by Christopher Paul Curtis. The premise of Echo bears some similarities to the novel Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, which is also a work of historical fiction about unusual connections between characters, featuring music in a prominent role and a significant birthmark.