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"It is wartime in German-occupied Poland. A mother hides with her five-year-old daughter, a musical prodigy whose slightest sound may cost them their lives. The girl is forbidden from making a sound, so the yellow bird sings. He sings whatever the girl composes in her head: high-pitched trills of piccolo; low-throated growls of contrabassoon. Music helps the flowers bloom. When the daisies grow abundant, the bird weaves a garland for the girl to wear on her head like a princess-though no one can see. She must hide from everyone in the village: soldiers, the farmhouse boys, the neighbors too. The lady with squinty eyes and blocky shoes just dragged a boy down the street and returned, proud and straight-backed, cradling a sack of sugar like a baby. After the Jews in their town are rounded up, Róza and her daughter, Shira, spend day and night hidden in a farmer's barn. Shira struggles to stay still and quiet, as music pulses inside her. To pass the time, Róza tells Shira a story: There is a little girl who, with the help of her yellow bird, tends an enchanted garden. The garden must be kept completely silent-only the bird can sing the girl's musical compositions-and together the girl and her bird avert many threats. Thus Róza manages to soothe Shira and shield her from the horrors around them. But then the day comes when their haven is no longer safe and Róza must face an impossible choice: whether to keep Shira by her side, or give her the chance to survive apart. The Yellow Bird Sings is a beautiful, heartrending novel about the unbreakable bond between a mother and a daughter, and the triumph of hope in even the darkest of times"--… (more)
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I remember the book, [book:She Rides Shotgun|23361199] because of a little bear, that personal item inserted and the role it played, for me, made the book unforgettable. In this book it will be a small yellow bird, a bird of friendship and love. A bird that signifies the freedom they no longer have. It will be the beauty of the music, and a mother, daughter love that can not be broken.
Ultimately I felt both devastated and hopeful reading this, as if there was something the Nazis could not steal, destroy. Hard to do, and the author uses the magic and power of storytelling, within and without, to do the near impossible. Melancholy, bittersweet, hopeful and sad, all emotions I felt while reading.
I look forward to Rosners next fictional rendering.
ARC from Bookbrowse.
A Jewish mother and her 5 year old daughter find themselves seeking shelter in a barn in the
Having had a background in music, the mother keeps her daughter entertained by telling her lyrical stories. From these stories, the daughter creates a make believe world in which she has a yellow bird as her companion.
As time goes on it becomes too dangerous for them to be hiding in the barn, so the mother makes an agonizing decision to separate them and send her daughter to live in safety with some nuns at an orphanage.
It is there that the child’s talent is brought forth, and in a sense, becomes her safety net. Throughout their time of separation, the mother is facing her own struggles as she tries to find her daughter while the war is coming to an end.
Readers who enjoy historical fiction and beautiful, descriptive writing will find their sweet spot with this novel. Others will be happy to hear there are no concentration camps featured in the story. I rate this a solid 4.5 stars.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.
Poland, 1941. The Nazis are combing the town and countryside for Jews. Roza and her
This is a poignant tale about a mother running for her life, during the Holocaust. Her parents have been taken away by the Nazis. Her husband has been murdered by them. Róza is fleeing her home in Poland with her five year old
When she and her mother are discovered as they try to escape the German troops, the farmer hides them in his hay loft visiting her mother by night as payment. In order to cope with her terror and confusion, Shira creates an imaginary friend, a yellow bird that must not sing, but a bird that still helps to guide her and give her courage.
When it becomes apparent, after months and months, that they are no longer safe in the barn, Róza consents to send Shira to a convent for safe keeping until the war ends. Shira never quite fully comprehends why all this is happening to her, but she is obedient and does as she is told even when it comes to taking a new name to hide her own identity. To remind her of who she truly is, her mother stitches her name in tiny stitches, into the seam of her blanket which Shira is never without.
Will she and her mother ever reunite? How will both Shira and Róza survive on their own, without each other to provide comfort. The book ends with hopefulness even in the face of such dark times. Telling more would give away the story which is sometimes contrived with the conjunction of unlikely coincidences, but still, the book is grounded in history and in facts. It is well researched and well read by the narrator. As a matter of fact, I would recommend the book as an audio over the print edition so the lyrical prose can be fully appreciated.
Rosner’s poignant description of the mother-daughter bond was heartbreaking yet also somewhat optimistic. The conditions Shira and her mother endured made me ashamed to complain even one iota about being confined by this Co-vid virus. They hid in a barn loft in Poland unable to move about freely and always having to remain silent. How does a mother et a five-year-old child to remain silent 24-hours-a-day? When they eventually became separated, I was kept on the edge of my seat wondering if they would ever be reunited.
This book addresses the phenomena of hidden children. Many Jewish parents made the heart-rending decision to put their children in the hands of Christian neighbors they trusted, or sent them to Christian schools run by Catholic nuns, or put them on train transports to another country. All this done in an effort to save the children’s lives. Some of these children were never reunited with their parents.
An excellent book, very moving. I highly recommend it.
Roza saw her parents and husband killed, and she realized the only way to keep her daughter safe was to run.
Shira was only five, had a gift for music, but could not make a sound.
They hid for
It eventually became too dangerous to keep hiding. The farmer's wife took Shira from Roza and sent her to an orphanage while Roza fled into the woods.
Your heart will break for the characters as you wonder how you would feel about having to send your children away to protect them.
We follow both characters as they yearn for each other and try to survive without each other - Shira in a convent and Roza on the run freezing and barely surviving in the woods.
You will be drawn into the lives of Roza and Shira and ache along with them.
THE YELLOW BIRD SINGS is a beautiful, but heart wrenching story. It is a story of bravery and endurance.
If you enjoy historical fiction, learning of musical prodigies, and books lyrically and beautifully written along with a story line that pulls you in, you will not want to miss this book.
It will stay with you long after you close the cover. 5/5
This book was given to me by the author in exchange for an honest review.
“Then Róża tells the story of a little girl who, with the help of her bright yellow bird, tends an enchanted garden. The little girl is five years old, the same age as Shira. The garden must be kept silent—only birdsong is safe—yet there is a princess who can’t stop sneezing and giants who must never hear them. There are adventures and threats averted by the little girl’s quick thinking; and each time, the story ends with the girl and her mother curled together in a soft heap of daisy petals for a good night’s sleep.”
It communicates how agonizing it would be to face a horrific situation while having to safeguard and interact with a young child, who would have little understanding of what was happening. It keeps the atrocities at a distance. There is no doubt what has happened (for example, rape) without going into excessive detail. It is a tribute to the author that, while not minimizing the misery of their experiences, she has written a poignant story of maternal love.