I’m pretty tired of the child prodigy stories and the contrivances that come along with them. Additionally, first-person narration from a child’s point of view is seldom handled appropriately in my opinion and this book falls into the same trap of an overly-sophisticated voice from a 5 year old. There were plenty of other parts that didn’t add up for the adult characters too. Great idea, poorly written. I was more than ready for the end. ( )

3.5* a good debut ( )

During the summer of 1941, fortune chews up and spits out the Chodorów family, Jews living in a rural Polish town. The Germans arrest most of Róża’s relatives and shoot her husband, Natan. Barely escaping with her five-year-old daughter, Shira, she throws herself on the mercies of Henryk and Krystyna Wiśniewski, Christian neighbors who are very frightened themselves.

But their reluctance is just half the problem. The only hiding place they can offer is the barn, unfortunately sited near a busy road, and the Wiśniewskis have their own children, naturally curious, liable to blurt out the secret to the wrong people, as young children are.

Not just that. Very young children, like Shira, don’t keep quiet at all, and Róża’s at her wits’ end to entertain her daughter in complete silence. She spins a tale about a girl forbidden to make a sound, and how a yellow bird sings for her, all that’s in her head. Since Róża’s a musician — her whole family was musical — she’s not surprised that Shira has notes weaving through her mind like a constant, melodic tapestry. Soon she realizes that Shira may even be a prodigy. What a powerful image: This innocent child, who loves music and has a rare talent for it, can’t understand that if she opens her mouth to sing, there are evil men who will kill her or betray her to the killers.

What’s more, even to have hidden safely that long has resulted from pure happenstance — and lust. At first, Henryk told Róża that mother and child could hide for one night only. But his decision changes, because Krystyna takes a shine to little Shira, and Henryk takes Róża nightly, climbing up the ladder to the loft and using her. Though the Wiśniewskis are risking their lives to shelter two Jews, what they’re giving and what they’re taking become blurry. I like that moral ambiguity, one hallmark of The Yellow Bird Sings.

Another hallmark is the constant tension over small events — soldiers passing on the road, the Wiśniewski boys’ attempt to explore the barn, Shira’s difficulty remaining quiet. But the real test comes when the Germans tell Henryk that they’re requisitioning the barn; Róża and Shira must now flee, immediately. Do they try to go together through the forest? Or does Róża give Shira up to the nuns at the local orphanage, who’ve agreed to take her? Much follows from that decision, of course.

Rosner’s vivid prose conveys the physical claustrophobia, life lived inside the head. I also like how the narrative resists earnestness and gives nearly all the characters recognizable flaws as well as virtues.

If anyone’s idealized, it’s Shira — I wish she had faults not explicable by her ordeal or forgivable for her age. Throughout, she remains a victim, so you feel sympathy for that; but victimhood wears thin, skating close to pity, less compelling than Róża’s portrayal, for instance. In the main, however, The Yellow Bird Sings protects nobody, least of all the Germans and their many fellow anti-Semites among the Poles; no whitewash, here.

Holocaust stories about children are legion, but this one stands out, all the more as a debut novel. ( )

In Poland during WWII, Róża and her 5-year-old daughter, Shira, must go into hiding to avoid the Nazi round-up of the Jewish people. They hide in their neighbor’s barn and Róża makes up a story about a yellow bird to help her daughter remain silent and avoid detection. Shira is from a musical family, and she is a musically gifted child, which plays an important role in the narrative. When soldiers get close, Róża must make difficult decisions.

“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.
( )

This book was very informative, as well as a very well-written account of things that occurred in Poland at the beginning of WWII. The book opens in the summer of 1941 in Poland. The story begins in a hot loft in a barn where a mother and her 5 year old daughter are hiding from the Germans who have invaded Poland. The Germans have broken up Jewish families and killed Jewish people throughout the country. Roza and her daughter Shira are hiding in the barn of a neighbour. Roza knows that in order to keep her daughter safe, they must remain silent at all times, and if there is any sound at all of approaching people, they must hide themselves in the hay. The time spent in the barn is only supposed to be for a short while until things calm down. But they don't calm down, and the Germans are still running patrols to round up Jewish people, so the two stay in the loft hidden away for over a year. To pass the time Roza tells Shira stories and sings and hums songs to her. Little does Roza know that little Shira is a protege and as she is humming or singing, Shira is composing the music in her head. It finally becomes too dangerous to hide in the barn, and the price that Roza must pay for her lodging becomes too high. With the help of the farm wife, a safe haven is found for Shira in a convent in Poland. Roza knows that she must give Shira up for her own safety, but it tears her apart to do so. Shira is sent to a Catholic convent with a name change, and she eventually finds does find comfort there with the help of some very loving nuns. It is also determined that this child is a violin protege, so they provide lessons with an esteemed violinist . With Shira gone, Roza must set out on her own, away from the barn and she goes into the nearby forest in the middle of winter. Starving and freezing, she makes her way towards the convent where Shira has been placed. On the way she runs into many dangers, and meets some fellow Jewish women. It takes years, but they finally meet up with a Polish revolutionary force, and Rosa finds peace for a time until she must continue her journey to find her daughter. The book is gut-wrenching and sad, and illustrates clearly the lengths a mother will go to be reunited with her child. The book has been inspired by true stories of Jewish children that were hidden away in WWII. This is not a long book, but a lot is said in the 280 pages and it left a lasting impression on me. It is very well-written, and a story that is told from the heart. ( )