Zoe Elias is an almost-eleven-year-old girl who wants nothing more in life than to be a child prodigy on the grand piano. Her agoraphobic father panics whenever he leaves the house, although he takes “Living Room University” classes to learn life skills that he never actually uses. When her dad goes out to buy her a piano, he ends up in the noisy busy mall and comes home with a Perfect-Tone D-60 organ instead. Zoe is horrified that instead of beautiful classical music she is taking lessons to play hit songs of the 1970’s to prepare for the upcoming regional organ recital competition, the Perform-a-rama.  Her mom is obsessed with numbers and commited to working long hours at her job. And suddenly a strange boy from school is following her home and hanging around with her dad, baking cookies!

Zoe Elias thinks life would be perfect if she were a child prodigy on the grand piano. But as she is pushing pedals and flipping switches to activate the cha cha beat, she discovers that maybe perfect isn’t exactly what she is looking for after all.

Check out A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban. I enjoyed listening to the audiobook CD narrated by Tai Alexandra Ricci. While the book is recommended for readers ages 8 to 12, I think it would be enjoyable to families to read or listen to together. Zoe tells her story in a quirky honest voice that will appeal to kids and adults alike!