Title: Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout
Book Beginnings photo of illustrations:
Friday56 photo of illustrations:
Summary: The story starts in Amsterdam in 2011 when Annick is worried about her grandmother who was recently diagnosed with lymphoma. The only cure is a stem cell transplant but when Oma's siblings check to see if they are a match they discover they are not even biological siblings. It is quite a shock. Annick wants to help her Oma figure out her history before it is too late. The only clue she has for a starting spot are the five prints hanging on the wall, all signed by Emma B., one with a note "For Joanna. May these prints keep your story alive."
The story then jumps back in time to April 1943 in Amsterdam where Emma, an art student, lives. As the Nazis ramp up their occupation of The Netherlands, Emma finds herself drawn into resistance work using her art skills to create forged documents. One day she is asked to smuggle two Jewish children, Hanna and Soli, to safety. Their parents were already removed to a concentration camp. The woman, one of their mother's friends, takes the little girl but not the boy. She said he looked too Jewish. Emma has to seek out another situation for the boy and eventually finds him shelter in the Catholic Church with Father Theo. But only if Emma will provide ration cards for Soli and the other boys hiding there.
The story jumps back and forth from 2011 to 1943 as Annick finally finds some clues which may lead Oma to her family of origin. And where we learn of all the work that Emma does in the Dutch Resistance.
Review: Though Song of a Blackbird is a fictional story it is based on real people (or composites of people.) The lives of the real Dutch heroes were highlighted at the end of the book. There really were artists who worked on forging documents, including papers for the biggest bank heist in Dutch history. Women would carry these documents around in fake pregnancy bellies or in strollers because women and children were not under the same scrutiny as men for suspicious activities. Children were smuggled and relocated with Dutch families but usually only the girls, as boys would have to tell-tale circumcision as a sign they were of Jewish heritage. Many of these children were never told of their heritage or knew anything at all about the Jewish culture, robbed first of their parents and secondly their personal history.
I found the book to be very enlightening since I knew very little about the Dutch Resistance during WWII. But I also enjoyed the medium of the book. Artist Maria van Lieshoul used old photographs taken by Resistance photographers in the 1940s for a project called the Underground Camera. The very act of taking a photograph was considered an act of resistance under the Nazis. Using mixed media, Lieshoul would overlay these photos with her illustrations. In the example, below, you see the black and white photo inside a cathedral with her illustrations above. I found this technique very unusual yet it helped give the whole project a sense of authenticity.
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| Note the illustration of the characters sitting up in the balcony talking. |
As a retired teen librarian I still like to read YA books, especially YA nonfiction, every once in a while. I find it very refreshing to read factual, or information based on facts, written in a format for teen readers. All the lengthy boring bits are removed and what is left is just a fascinating story. That is doubly true for graphic novels.
My rating: 4.5 stars
Challenges: 20+ Books of Summer
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