A DIFFERENT VOICE

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      Daniel James Durkin, Jr. was born with Williams Syndrome, a.k.a. WS. 

      You may not have heard of WS because it's rare, like, 1 in 10,000 rare.  An exceptionally talented alto sax player (musicality is a WS thing) whose brain lights up with colors when he hears certain music, Daniel faces some extra challenges as he heads into his freshman year at Stonebridge High School. (Some learning disabilities are a WS thing) It's a daunting prospect. It aggravates his anxieties. (Yep, another WS thing.)

      From day one of August marching band camp, Daniel's middle school nemesis Richie, a rival alto sax player who wants to be the best but isn't, amps up his bullying, aiming to beat Daniel for top slots in the jazz band and premier jazz ensemble. In the months heading up to the big quadrennial band trip to Disney World, the petty meanness escalates, and the talisman always in Daniel's pocket for luck and courage-his deceased father's Marine Boot Camp Challenge Coin-isn't powerful enough to protect him from a malicious prank with potentially deadly consequences. 

      Mean kids aren't the only problem. In social studies class, his ancient harpy crone of a teacher clings fiercely to her old ways, which don't include making accommodations for SpEd students. Or smiling. Or moderating the tone of her unpleasantly shrill, old-lady-harpy-crone voice. (Sensitive hearing? WS again.)

      Throughout his freshman year, Daniel grapples with both typical and atypical issues: identity formation within a peer group where you're seen as "different;" independence from a parent when you have built-in medical issues-some fixable, some not. Learning that the whole world is not your friend. (WS thing.) But one special friendship makes all the difference, and Daniel finds that with fellow freshman/new-girl-in-town, kind, artistic Phoebe Eagan. He gets by with a little help from his new true friend. And always, his music... until the night he nearly loses that.  

Told in an intimate, often funny first-person voice, and grounded in lived experience of Williams syndrome, both hopeful and unflinching, SEE THE MUSIC HEAR THE LIGHT offers a nuanced, anti-ableist portrait of a neurodivergent teen finding his way toward agency, belonging, and hard-won joy.

Gen Ed: Grades 6 - 9. SpEd: Grades 6 - 12. (Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 4.2; Social Emotional content: upper middle grade to young YA)