Sydelle Pearl

Born in Harlem during the Great Depression, a little African-American girl is
named Hope Sequoyah for the promise of better times to come and the
Cherokee chief who taught his people how to read and write.
With a name like yours, you must stand tall, her mama always says.
When Hope is five years old, her mama takes a painting class with
Robert Brackman and Hope's life is forever changed.
The story that Sydelle Pearl created is fiction, but Robert Brackman was
in fact an art teacher at the Art Students League of New York and painted
Somewhere in America in 1934 as part of President Roosevelt’s Public Works
for Art Project during the Great Depression.

http://www.storypearls.com/
Phone: 412-521-4028
Email: info@storypearls.com… (altro)

In which I read another novel about the Holocaust, set in a Polish Ghetto, from the perspective of a child, but without the magical talking dolls. I think I appreciate books about the Holocaust more that don't feature talking dolls, as much as anyone can, or should, appreciate a novel about how truly sh*tty humans can be to each other.

So, rel="nofollow" target="_top">Wordwings is about a girl who tells stories in the Warsaw ghetto, writing them between and around the lines of a worn book of fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen. That's why I requested it; there's something poetic about where she had to write. It has a sort of fairy tale logic in its necessity. And then there's some talk of The Six Swans, which I always think of a The Three Ravens from the Jim Henson Storyteller TV show. So, little pieces I liked dappled throughout.

I approached Wordwings as a children's book, maybe because the last novel I read about the Holocaust was geared towards kids. But then Netgalley tells me it's General Adult. But then Rivke, our protagonist, doesn't really write like a child, although does one write like a child in such situations? I am blessed that I never had to find out. But as an adult book, Wordwings only kind of works, mainly since the secondary characters are more sketches than people. If we put it back as a middle-grade novel, the characterization work better. But then we're again with the voice, which I can't reconcile with a child's one. But I think a middle-grade reader would see past that. And I think that even if it says General adult, I might put it under mature middle-grade (and weirdo grown-ups like me who like middle-grade books).

Wordwings by Sydelle Pearl went on sale October 1, 2017.

I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.… (altro)

After WWII Jella Lepman returns to Germany to help determine what the children need. She learns they want books. This is the story of how she gets books into the hands of the children.

I enjoyed this book. I found it interesting how she found funding to start a library. I also liked that she took the initiative to get books printed that she could give to the children. The book was Ferdinand the Bull, which was a favorite of mine from childhood.

I recommend this book for 7-10 year olds.… (altro)