A Duet For Home

Karina Yan Glaser is the American author of the middle grade novel A Duet for Home. For several years, Glaser worked at shelters for unhoused people in New York City, teaching literature to the young people there. Glaser uses her experience to create the narratives of June and Tyrell—two unhoused sixth graders who live in the same shelter and share a passion for classical music. The story addresses themes such as the Diverse Definitions of Family and Home, The Power of Classical Music, and The Choice Between Blaming Bad Luck and Taking Action. Glaser has also penned a best-selling series called The Vanderbeekers (2017-2023), which follows the lives of a family living in Harlem.

This guide refers to the 2022 Clarion Books e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss the death of a parent, problematic parenting and parental neglect, bullying, gun violence, murder, and the trauma of unhoused people. The source text uses the term “homeless,” which this guide reproduces only in quotation marks.

Plot Summary

The narrative forms a “duet” by alternating between the perspectives of two unhoused sixth graders, June Yang and Tyrell Chee, who live at the Huey House shelter in the Bronx. This pattern continues throughout the book.

June lives with her mother and little sister, Maybelle, in Chinatown—a neighborhood in the Manhattan borough. When a marshal evicts them from their apartment, June packs their belongings in black trash bags, and the family ends up at Huey House, which Maybelle compares to a prison. June’s mother and father came from China, and her mother speaks Cantonese. June’s mother used to work as a cook in a banquet hall, and her father delivered Chinese food on a bike. He died when a truck collided with his bike, and the death traumatized Mrs. Yang, who stopped going to work and taking care of her daughters.

June adores classical music and brings her viola to the shelter, but Marcus, the burly security guard, tells her that Ms. MacMillan, the woman who runs Huey House, forbids musical instruments. June doesn’t want to part with the viola, so Marcus promises to keep it safe for her. June and her family’s room is on the fourth floor; June thinks that the number four is bad luck and cannot believe that she is living in a shelter. She hates having to wake up at 5:30 am for school; it takes almost two hours to get to her school in Chinatown.

Like June, Tyrell is in sixth grade. He has been living at Huey House for three years, so he is comfortable and knows his way around. Tyrell’s best friend is Jeremiah, who has also been at Huey House for three years. Jeremiah excels at school and helps counter Tyrell’s mischievous personality. Tyrell and Jeremiah plan to move out when they’re 18 and find a place together. They want to be detectives for the New York City Police Department. Ms. Gonzalez, the compassionate head of family services, has found an apartment for Jeremiah and his mother, but Jeremiah hasn’t yet told Tyrell about this development.

One day, to retaliate against a condescending girl in the shelter, Tyrell and Jeremiah compromise the cafeteria’s cranberry juice dispenser. The girl is the only person who drinks cranberry juice, and the boys arrange things so that the juice will squirt all over her top. However, June and Maybelle also want cranberry juice, so it stains their shirts as well. Tyrell and Jeremiah feel guilty, and they eventually cross paths with the Yang sisters and apologize.

When June’s viola appears on her bed one day, Tyrell wants to touch it. He loves classical music too and enjoys listening to a person in the next-door brownstone play the violin each night. Tyrell also has a crush on the 16-year-old Lulu Vega. Lulu is warm and responsible, and her Abuela (grandmother) arranges for June to receive viola lessons from Domenika, the person in the brownstone. The lesson doesn’t go well, and June thinks of Domenika as a “dragon.”

On Ms. MacMillan’s desk, June spies a confidential document about Housing Stability Plus (HSP)—a program that encourages shelters to move families into housing within 90 days regardless of the condition of their new apartment or the readiness of the family to live on their own. As part of the program, the city gives shelters money for moving the families out and ostensibly reducing the number of unhoused people in New York City. Tyrell hears about the plan and uses mice to disrupt a conference about the plan. Because Ms. Gonzalez opposes the program, Ms. MacMillan fires her.

Tyrell discovers that Jeremiah is moving out and becomes so upset that he doesn’t say goodbye to his best friend. He then sneaks out of Huey House and wanders around his former Bronx neighborhood. Tyrell grew up in public housing, and his dad is currently in jail for murdering another person. One day, the brother of this person writes Tyrell a letter, expressing his hope that Tyrell will find peace and will not allow his father’s actions to define him.

Maybelle adores dogs, and she misses Nana, the dog they had at their Chinatown apartment. Now, the dog is at an animal shelter near their school. One day, Maybelle disappears, and Tyrell realizes that she is at the animal shelter. When the others find her there, the incident pushes Mrs. Yang out of her inert state. She hugs her daughters and starts to care for them again.

Domenika and June reconcile, and Domenika agrees to give lessons to June and Tyrell. She also lets Maybelle watch the dog she’s caring for. Domenika prepares June for her audition for her school’s orchestra. Not only does June get into the orchestra, but she also gets a solo. Another girl in the orchestra becomes jealous and makes fun of June and her housing situation, prompting June, with Tyrell and Maybell in tow, to march to City Hall to confront the mayor about the recklessness of HSP. The police refuse to let the young people see the mayor, but they overhear the mayor’s advisors preparing for a press conference.

With the help of Marcus and Domenika, the young people organize and disrupt the press conference. June and Tyrell give speeches about the benefits of Huey House, and the mayor agrees to suspend the HSP program. Mrs. Yang says that she is happy that June is her daughter.