Step to the Music by Phyllis A. Whitney was absolutely my favorite book, and one that I repeatedly checked out from the library and re-read during my junior high years, or ages 12-15 or so. I have looked for this book now and again, but it has long been out of print. Inspired by susanj67, who recently re-read a childhood favorite, I looked again, and found a single copy available through my library's ILL system. I was delighted to discover that I loved it at 42 nearly as much as I did at 12.

Published in 1953, Step to the Music brings the awful divisions of the US Civil War up close and personal. Seventeen year-old Abbie Garrett is overjoyed that the McIntyre family has moved back to her Staten Island neighborhood after six years in Atlanta. Prior to their move to the South, Abbie and Douglas and Stuart McIntyre had been inseparable playmates, and Abbie had nurtured a young girl’s hero-worship of Douglas, the older of the two boys. Shortly after the McIntyres return, Abbie’s mother returns from an extended stay with her family in Charleston with Abbie’s cousin Lorena in tow. Lorena has come to stay with her northern relatives because of the growing unrest in the South, but the strong-willed young Southern Belle resents it severely, and makes plain her contempt for everything Yankee.

As the political tensions strain to the breaking point, many discussions are held in genteel parlors about issues that seem just as relevant today: states’ rights versus the union, self or state interests versus the greater common good, and the right or responsibility or duty of an individual to fight for what is right. And beyond that: what is right? Why is it important to save the union? How far is too far? What is worth fighting for? These issues are never black-and-white, and are made even more difficult when the ‘other side’ is not a distinct ‘them,’ but rather some of ‘us.’ Mr. Garrett’s decision to enlist on the side of the union wounds his wife deeply, yet because of bonds of love and loyalty, she is not an enemy of the North either. And while the war swirls around them, Abbie feelings for Douglas deepen, but his eyes are for Lorena, which further complicate his feelings about the war. When he finally does enlist, it is for the South, which rents his family terribly. While he is off fighting, times change, young people grow and mature, the fighting comes much closer to home, and the issues are more and more complicated.

I can see why my 13 year-old self loved this book so much, and I can honestly say that for me anyway, it stands up beautifully to a re-read. This is fine YA historical fiction, probably before YA was really a genre. The romance of the story, which I loved as a middle schooler, is written with a light and poignant touch, and resolves very sweetly, but the book is much more than a romance, taking a hard and personal look at issues that are still relevant. Now I will search for a copy I can own, starting by writing to the library that owns this book to see if they might consider selling this very old copy to me if it is ever a candidate for weeding. THANK YOU to Susan for inspiring this trip down memory lane!

A young girl believes she is in love with her neighbor, Douglas, but when her Southern cousin, Lorina, comes to stay and flirts with him, she is torn. Her mother is from the South, and her father is a Northerner who believes in peace, not war. He enlists in the Union and is wounded. The conflict tears her family apart and the wounds extend to their neighborhood. When the book ends, she finds her true love.