The Girl Who SangA Holocaust Memoir of Hope and Survival
Review posted March 21, 2025.
Roaring Brook Press, 2024. 264 pages.
Review written February 18, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
2025 Sidney Taylor Gold Medal, Middle Grades
2025 Sibert Honor Book
2025 Best Children's Graphic Novels Top Ten
The Girl Who Sang is a memoir about the Holocaust in graphic novel form. And yes, rather amazingly, the author makes it a story of hope and survival.
Enia was the youngest of five kids living on a farm in a village in Poland. But then the Germans came, and they had to go into hiding. Enia ended up hiding in different attics from when she was five to when she was ten. And she lost all but two of her brothers during the war.
But she makes this book about the good people who helped save their lives along the way, and about the joy of being free after the war and building a new life in America.
And through all of it, she has always loved to sing.
This book did tear my heart into pieces, and I sure didn't think the little girl would survive in spots. But this tells the story from a child's viewpoint, and can be a way to tell children about that dark time in history.