Wonderful Feels Like This

By Sara Lövestam

A celebration of being a little bit odd, finding your people and the power of music to connect us.

For Steffi, going to school everyday is an exercise in survival. She's never fit in with any of the groups at school, and she's viciously teased by the other girls in her class. The only way she escapes is through her music--especially jazz music.

When Steffi hears her favourite jazz song playing through an open window of a retirement home on her walk home from school, she decides to go in and introduce herself. The old man playing her favorite song is Alvar. When Alvar was a teenager in World War II Sweden, he dreamed of being in a real jazz band. Then and now, Alvar's escape is music--especially jazz music.

Through their unconventional friendship, Steffi comes to realise that she won't always feel alone. She can go to music school in Stockholm. She can be a real musician. She can be a jitterbug, just like Alvar.

But how can Steffi convince her parents to let her go to Stockholm to audition? And how is it that Steffi's school, the retirement home, the music and even Steffi's worst bully are somehow all connected to Alvar? Can it be that the people least like us are the ones we need to help us tell our own stories?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Allen & Unwin
• Release date: Apr 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781925575620

Reviews for Wonderful Feels Like This

[sweetiegherkin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Steffi doesn't fit in at her small-town school, in part because she's unlike everyone else with her Latino father and her love of jazz music. When happenstance leads her to meeting Alvar, an elderly man at the local nursing home, she is thrilled to learn he is also a jazz aficionado and was even part of the jazz scene in Stockholm during World War II.This is an uplifting, 'feel-good' story that is a nice antidote to all the dark, heavy 'problem' novels in YA literature right now. The story is told alternately in the present tense about Steffi's struggles at school and in the past tense about Alvar's own teen years in Stockholm. Through both characters, a lot of common teen problems are address including negotiating romantic relationships, leaving home, getting into choice schools, etc. Personally, I found Alvar's story more compelling, especially with it being set in a time period that is of interest to me. And, I learned a lot about Swedish jazz music as a result of the author mixing in real-life musicians with Alvar and his friends. Steffi's story felt more like the many other middle-grade and teen novels that address bullying, and I found the present-tense writing a bit off-putting. Still, that is an important topic for many readers, and I appreciated how the author's moral was essentially about being the bigger person and not worrying because this phase of life won't last forever. And, I loved the author's send-off in her acknowledgments: "thank you, children and teenagers, sitting in schools all over the world, thinking about chords, shading, pi, medieval aesthetics, adverbs, metaphysics, Neanderthals, lace-making chromatics, and making flambes, instead of letting schoolyard pecking orders get to you. Your time will come."

[linda.a. · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Steffi is fifteen years old and, with a complexion inherited from her Cuban father, her exotic looks make her a target for cruel and relentless bullying at her school in a small Swedish town, as does her passion for listening to and playing classical jazz music, rather than the popular music her peers listen to. Most of the time her family is loving and accepting, but nevertheless she generally feels alienated and friendless. On her way home from school one day she hears her favourite song coming from the open window of a retirement home. As she stands outside listening, the occupant of the room, recognising her interest, gruffly invites her to come in and introduce herself properly. So begins her relationship with 89 year old Alvar who, as a seventeen year old in 1942, moved from rural Sweden to Stockholm because, as a keen musician, he dreamed of playing in a jazz band rather than joining the family timber business. This charming story switches between Steffi’s struggle to find herself in what so often feels like an alien world, and Alvar’s experiences of chasing his dreams in wartime Stockholm. Their shared love of jazz, as well as the fact that each of them has experience of feeling different from their peers, is central to their developing friendship. Alvar helps Steffi to feel confident in her sense of self as well as in her artistic ability, whilst Steffi enables Alvar to relive his wartime experiences and his passion for playing jazz, at a time when it was viewed with suspicion by many people in conservative Sweden. Although there is a huge difference in their ages, there is so much that they have in common and, as a result, each of them gains from their unlikely friendship. Through the experiences of these two characters the author explores many themes which centre on developing self-belief, even when it feels as though no one appreciates or understands you; finding the courage to chase your dreams; recognising and valuing true friendship and having the courage to be different, not to be moulded by other people’s expectations. The psychology of bullying was well explored as the story developed. It gradually became clear that some of the characters who were bullies had themselves been bullied, exposing the fact that, rather than affected individuals becoming determined to behave differently, all too often abusive family patterns are repeated down through the generations. I enjoyed the author’s rather slow, highly evocative and almost poetic style of writing and I soon fell under the spell of her well-drawn main characters. Although this is ultimately a feel-good story, I liked the fact that she tackled issues of bullying in a very direct and specific way; some of her descriptions were so harrowing that I feared for Steffi’s safety and found myself wanting to intervene to protect her! I thought that she managed the shifts between the two stories in a convincing way, and that the parallels between Steffi’s and Alvar’s experiences emerged in an easy and unforced way. As a fan of classical jazz, there were moments when I felt that I was reading to an irresistible background beat! I loved all the references to performers whose work I enjoy, as well as to ones who were new to me (I am now feeling keen to extend my musical education!) However, I can imagine that non jazz-lovers may well find the amount of detail rather too much!I think this is a delightful coming of age novel and whilst it could be regarded more as a young adult novel, I think it will appeal to readers as young as twelve, as well as to much older ones. I also think that the themes covered would make an excellent teaching resource. My feelings about it as a choice for a reading group are rather more ambivalent. However, I do think that some groups would enjoy exploring the power of the relationship between Steffi and Alvar: what each of them brings to the relationship and what it highlights for each of them.