Song of a Blackbird
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected 4 Mar 2025
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- $12.99
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- Pre-Order
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Fictionalised but based on true events, Song of a Blackbird has two intertwined timelines: one is a modern-day family drama, the other a thrilling true story of a WWII-era bank heist carried out by Dutch resistance fighters.
'So heart-rending and familiar, and so brilliantly, unforgettably different.'
- Morris Gleitzman, bestselling author of Once
Emma is a young student about to be drawn into what will become the biggest bank heist in European history: swapping 50 million guilders' worth of forged treasury bonds for real ones - right under the noses of the Nazis. Emma's life - and the lives of thousands, including a little girl named Hanna - hangs in the balance.
Almost seventy years later, Annick discovers something surprising about her family. Her grandmother needs a bone marrow donor but none of her relatives is a match. In fact, they are not even related. Desperate to find a living blood relative, Annick dives into the past, aided by her grandmother's only childhood possession, five copper etchings, and the name of their maker: Emma Bergsma.
In this stranger-than-fiction graphic novel, Maria van Lieshout weaves a tale about family, courage and the power of art. Deeply personal yet universal, Song of a Blackbird sheds light on a remarkable WWII story and sends a powerful message about compassion and resistance.
'Song of a Blackbird illustrates, with great tenderness, how the past lives within us. This is essential, illuminating reading.'
- R. J. Palacio, bestselling author of Wonder
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Young girls are united through the decades in this touching and tender graphic novel exploration of grief, family, and the vital importance of artistic expression, told by van Lieshout (the Big Kid Power series) through intertwining stories set in Amsterdam between 2011 and the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in 1943. When donor testing reveals Annick's sick oma was adopted, a series of prints from Oma's childhood signed by the mysterious Emma B. sets Annick on a path toward uncovering the truth of her oma's family, which was torn apart by Nazi violence against Jewish Netherlanders and one person's reluctance to stand up to it. Using a limited palette of red, black, white, orange, and pale blue, van Lieshout blends fluid figure drawings with b&w photographs that ground the narrative in its historical setting; the stark red of artist Emma's jacket against the backdrop of real photos adds a sense of immensity to the character's situation. The included through line that follows Emma's own artwork—something that once felt so small to her but that she soon learns the value of—is a powerful testament to art and its ability to foster change and connection. Ages 14–up.
