Struts & Frets

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Skovron, Jon.
Struts and frets / by Jon Skovron.
p. cm.
Summary: Sammy wants to be a musician, as was his grandfather, but while the band he is in is self-destructing, Sammy is too distracted by his grandfather's decline and his confused feelings about his best friend to fix it—and his mother stays too busy to help.
ISBN 978-0-8109-4174-8
[1. Bands (Music)—Fiction. 2. Self-confidence—Fiction. 3. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 4. Grandfathers—Fiction. 5. Single-parent families—Fiction. 6. Columbus (Ohio)—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.S628393Str 2009
[Fic]—dc22
2008045925

Text copyright © 2009 Jon Skovron

Book design by Chad W. Beckerman

Pages 35 and 281: “I'm Beginning to See the Light”—Words and Music by Don George, Johnny Hodges, Duke Ellington and Harry James. Copyright © 1944 Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Chappell & Co. and Ricki Music Company in the U.S.A. Copyright renewed 1959. All Rights on behalf of Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC Administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, 8 Music Square West, Nashville, TN 37203. Used by permission. All Rights on behalf of Ricki Music Company Administered by WB Music Corp. Rights for the world outside the U.S.A. Administered by Chappell & Co. Used by permission from ALFRED PUBLISHING CO., INC International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved.

Published in 2009 by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. Amulet Books and Amulet Paperbacks are registered trademarks of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

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1 Idiots Rule

2 Communist Daughter

3 Someday you will Be Loved

4 Wake Up

5 Only Shallow

6 How High the Moon

7 I Just Wanna Get Along

8 Monkey Gone to Heaven

9 Caring Is Creepy

10 Heaven't Got a Clue

11 Yerself Is Steam

12 Taste the Pain

13 Addicted to Fame

14 Everything in Its Right Place

15 Sins of the Father

16 I Hate Rock 'n' Roll

17 The Moon and Antarctica

18 So Far I Have Not Found a Science

Sammy's Rock and Jazz Mashup Playlist

Acknowledgments

Reason. Or Tragedy of Wisdom. We hadn't decided yet. I liked “Reason” because it said how much it sucked to be the only thoughtful person in a crazy world. But our frontman, Joe, liked “Wisdom” because, he said: