Song of a Blackbird

by Maria van Lieshout

Overview

FIVE STARRED REVIEWS!

"This is essential, illuminating reading.” —R. J. Palacio, bestselling author of Wonder

Fight hate. Make art.

In 1943 Amsterdam, Emma Bergsma’s world changes when she witnesses Jewish families being forcibly deported to concentration camps. That pivotal moment lights a fire within her, and she decides to join the Dutch Resistance. Before long, Emma is drawn into a clandestine world of printing presses and counterfeiters, with thousands of lives on the line.

In 2011 Amsterdam, teenage Annick’s world has changed as well. A search for a bone marrow donor for her beloved oma leads to a shocking revelation: her grandmother was secretly adopted as a child. The only clues to finding their lost family are a series of art prints hanging on the wall—each signed by a mysterious “Emma B.”

This timely graphic novel weaves together two timelines to reveal how art, in the face of political upheaval and nearly insurmountable adversity, can become our greatest lifeline.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250869821
Publisher:	First Second
Publication date:	01/21/2025
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Maria van Lieshout was born and raised near Amsterdam, where she spent many weekends in the Museum Quarter row house where her grandparents lived with her artist aunt and metalsmith uncle. Drawing while her aunt painted, and pecking stories on a typewriter while her uncle soldered metals inspired her love for drawing, creating and writing. After high school in Leiden, Maria studied Visual Communications at GWU in DC, and worked in design and innovation at Coca-Cola. In 2000, Maria became an illustrator full-time. She has illustrated/written several picture books. Song of a Blackbird is Maria’s first graphic novel.

Editorial Reviews

★ 10/14/2024

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. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

A Junior Library Guild Selection

"Deeply compelling...while the story meaningfully evokes a specific historical situation, it could easily serve as a springboard for conversations around other stories of oppression, both contemporary and historical." —Booklist, starred review

"This work will claim its place beside graphic novel classics such as Art Spiegelman’s Maus and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. Powerful, moving, and utterly unforgettable." —Kirkus, starred review

"A touching and tender graphic novel exploration of grief, family, and the vital importance of artistic expression." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Though not for the faint of heart, this touching, gripping, and heartbreaking historical graphic novel doesn’t shy away from the dark sides of the true events it’s based on, while still offering a ray of hope for the genuine good out there." —School Library Journal, starred review

“This deeply personal and poetic graphic novel illustrates the heroic actions of everyday Dutch people as they resisted the Nazi regime.” —Horn Book, starred review

"Celebrates the incredible bravery of everyday people living under impossible circumstances, as well as the lasting legacy of their actions." —Wall Street Journal

"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, White Bird, and Pony

"A visually stunning dive into history, family, and the awesome power of art."

—Steve Sheinkin, bestselling author of Bomb, Most Dangerous, and The Port Chicago 50

From the Publisher

★ 11/01/2024

Gr 10 Up—Van Lieshout's graphic novel debut opens with a blackbird who acts as a third-person omniscient narrator, calling out to those who are suffering to hear its sympathetic song. "Retelling. Remembering. This is how we keep stories and memories alive. This is how we keep people alive." Readers get two alternating yet intertwined storylines: Annick in Amsterdam, 2011, and Emma in Amsterdam, 1943. Annick is a young girl searching for answers to her ailing grandmother's past, while Emma, a student, is searching for small gleams of light, which she finds in helping those in need through an era of darkness. The illustrations and coloring are sharply contrasted, with slight hues of color to differentiate the point in time readers are being immersed in. These striking illustrations are blended seamlessly with actual photographs that ignite emotions for those following both protagonists on their riveting journeys. Through different characters, the horrific intent of Hitler and the Nazis is made transparent, and the text on how Hitler came to power is comprehensible for developing minds, allowing for critical thinking and discourse about historical events. The story builds a powerful connection from the near present to the past, as readers learn about these tragic moments in history. Though the story is fiction, photographs and historical background at the end of the book reveal the harsh realities of world history. VERDICT Though not for the faint of heart, this touching, gripping, and heartbreaking historical graphic novel doesn't shy away from the dark sides of the true events it's based on, while still offering a ray of hope for the genuine good out there.—Cat Miserendino

School Library Journal

★ 2024-10-11
A Dutch girl must unravel a complicated family history to save her beloved grandmother.

In Dutch author and illustrator van Lieshout’s debut graphic novel, Oma, Annick’s grandmother, has leukemia, and doctors have said that her best chance of survival is a bone marrow transplant. Family members usually offer the likeliest match, but the search for a donor leads Oma to learn that she’s not biologically related to her siblings. Hoping to discover the identities of Oma’s biological parents—and a viable donor—Annick studies the only surviving clues from Oma’s World War II childhood: a set of prints of Amsterdam buildings. Along her life-changing journey, Annick meets Koenji, a handsome street artist and poet whose mother is from Japan, and the pair piece together the significance of the buildings in the prints, following a trail that leads them through Amsterdam and on to the U.S. Told from the perspective of an omniscient blackbird through dual timelines that shift between 2011 and the mid-1940s, this skillfully researched tale is historically and emotionally resonant, reinforcing the importance of art as “a radical act of freedom and resistance.” Van Lieshout juxtaposes her clean, striking two-toned illustrations against stark black-and-white photographs, adding dramatic splashes of color. The backmatter cites the real people and places that served as inspiration. Accessible, haunting, and immaculately researched, this work will claim its place beside graphic novel classics such as Art Spiegelman’sMaus and Marjane Satrapi’sPersepolis.

Powerful, moving, and utterly unforgettable. (photo credits, bibliography)(Graphic fiction. 12-adult)

Kirkus Reviews