The Yellow Bird Sings by Jennifer Rosner
Reviewer: Deb Alig, Circulation Assistant
Genre: Historical Fiction
Suggested Age: Adult
What is This Book About? This tragic, but redeeming story takes place during WWII in Poland when Nazi soldiers rounded up Jews in order to kill them. Roza and her five year old daughter Shira are the only people who survive in their family during a Nazi invasion of their home town. To keep her daughter safe, Roza seeks shelter in the hayloft of her neighbor’s barn. For fifteen months, Shira, who is a music prodigy, must remain as silent as possible while hiding in the hay. To help her daughter keep quiet and calm, Roza tells her an enchanting tale about a little girl who lives in a garden and is forbidden from making a sound. But a yellow bird lives in this garden too, and he sings whatever the little girl is composing in her head but cannot proclaim or hum. Hiding in the hay becomes increasingly dangerous, so Roza hesitently decides to send Shira away to a convent where she will be hidden and taken care of by the nuns. While Shira is at the convent her name is changed to Zosia, and she is rasied as a Catholic orphan. It is at the convent where Zosia is given a violin and is taught to play like a virtuoso by Pan Skrzypezak, a teacher who the nuns hire. When she plays, she dreamily remembers a time when her mama played cello, her tata played violin, and her grandfather, who was a luthier, held her and placed her fingers on the strings of a violin. After sending Shira away, Roza sets out on her own to hide in the forest. During this time she experiences such things as exposure, frostbite, starvation, dehydration, lice infestation and gut-wrenching fear. While heading south in the forest, her primary goal is to find Shira.
My Review: Jennifer Rosner’s writing is lyrical, poetic and reads like a song. This writing style compliments the content which centers around music. The yellow bird in the enchanted garden who sings represents Shira’s voice and the music she composes in her head but cannot share out loud. I think the imaginary yellow bird that Shira cups in her hands to help soothe and calm herself symbolizes Shira and all of the other Jewish children who were hidden during the Holocaust in order to survive. Shira whispers to her bird, “I told you, you have to stay still and silent. You have to hide.” She continues, “You are different. I don’t know how, exactly; you just are.” Sometimes Shira’s mother talks about being different, but Shira doesn’t understand what she means. But at the end, when Tzofia (Shira) performs on stage at Carnegie Hall, she is not hiding and she no longer has to be silent for being for being Jewish. She is free to be her beautiful self and to share her magical music with the world.
Rating: 5/5
Three Words That Describe This Book: heart-wrenching, hopeful, enchanting
Give This a Try if You Like: The Book of Last Names by, Kristin Harmel, The Child on Platform One: Inspired by Children who Escaped the Holocaust by, Gill Thompson, Children of the Stars by, Mario Escobar, The Diary of Anne Frank by, Anne Frank
About FDL Reads
FDL Reads is a series of weekly book reviews from Fondulac District Library.
