Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams

by Shari Green

Overview

From award-winning verse novelist Shari Green comes an unforgettable story of friendship, first love, and an impossible choice between integrity and duty, family and friends, all while fighting for a dream.

Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams is a historical YA novel in verse that centers around a young pianist in East Germany trying to make sense of love, duty, and the pursuit of dreams during the unsettled months of protest that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall in the late 1980s. Written in stunning lyrical verse, Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams is a story of hope, courage, romance, and the power of music not only to change lives, but to save them.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781524881122
Publisher:	Andrews McMeel Publishing
Publication date:	03/05/2024
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	141,989
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Shari Green is the author of several novels in verse, including the ALA Schneider Family Book Award winner, Macy McMillan and the Rainbow Goddess. Her books have been included on international “best of” lists and nominated for multiple state and provincial readers’-choice programs. Shari is also a poet, musician, and former nurse. She can often be found wandering the beaches or forest trails near her home on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada.

Editorial Reviews

"This racing heartbeat of a verse novel had me on the edge of my seat, wondering what life and death choices Helena might make." (Marsha Skrypuch, author of Making Bombs for Hitler and Winterkill)

"Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams transports readers to the peaceful protests in Leipzig, Germany in 1989 that contribute to the opening of borders throughout East Germany—to freedom. But freedom isn't a quick or easy path for gifted pianist Helena, who must consider her own dreams, her family's safety, and her new boyfriend's secret plans—especially when a Stasi officer wants to know what she's hiding. A powerful story about raising your voice told in gorgeous, musical poetry." (Kip Wilson, author of White Rose and The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin)

"Crafted as intricately as a Bach concerto, SONG OF FREEDOM, SONG OF DREAMS swept me into a historical world as well researched and compellingly depicted as it is relevant to today’s reader." (Joy McCullough, author of Blood Water Paint and Enter the Body)

"Emotionally resonant and masterfully crafted.

In the German Democratic Republic during the latter months of 1989, a 16-year-old girl faces the realities of her government’s violent control of its people.

Helena’s life in Leipzig revolves around music. An avid pianist, she imagines someday becoming a conductor and using the power of music “to stir people / to dreams. Imagining / the possibility lets loose / butterflies within me.” Constraints about people’s life choices in the GDR, and her mother’s practical concerns over her future, leave her career plans uncertain. For Helena, music is her path to freedom and a form of release from the oppression surrounding her. But after her best friend escapes to Austria during a rush on the border, Helena joins her father in protesting the intolerable conditions in which they live. Under constant observation by the Stasi and with new travel restrictions in place, citizens are unable to leave the country, and their expressions of dissent are violently shut down. Helena’s narrative is a moving piece of historical fiction that is detailed, well researched, and remarkable in its ability to transport readers into another era.

Written in verse, this lyrical novel masterfully tackles the complicated issues of political oppression, police brutality, and nonviolent acts of resistance. The poems vary in length and style, emphasizing major themes and important moments with delicate artistry." (Kirkus Reviews)

From the Publisher

★ 2023-12-06
In the German Democratic Republic during the latter months of 1989, a 16-year-old girl faces the realities of her government’s violent control of its people.

Helena’s life in Leipzig revolves around music. An avid pianist, she imagines someday becoming a conductor and using the power of music “to stir people / to dreams. Imagining / the possibility lets loose / butterflies within me.” Constraints about people’s life choices in the GDR, and her mother’s practical concerns over her future, leave her career plans uncertain. For Helena, music is her path to freedom and a form of release from the oppression surrounding her. But after her best friend escapes to Austria during a rush on the border, Helena joins her father in protesting the intolerable conditions in which they live. Under constant observation by the Stasi and with new travel restrictions in place, citizens are unable to leave the country, and their expressions of dissent are violently shut down. Helena’s narrative is a moving piece of historical fiction that is detailed, well researched, and remarkable in its ability to transport readers into another era. Written in verse, this lyrical novel skillfully tackles the complicated issues of political oppression, police brutality, and nonviolent acts of resistance. The poems vary in length and style, emphasizing major themes and important moments with delicate artistry.

Emotionally resonant and masterfully crafted. (author’s note, glossary, selected sources) (Verse historical fiction. 13-18)

Kirkus Reviews

02/01/2024

Gr 7–10—Set in East Germany during the days leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, this accessible verse novel is told from the perspective of Helena, a 16-year-old pianist who dreams of one day working as a conductor. When her best friend escapes over the border with her family, Helena begins to question the restrictions and surveillance imposed upon the citizens of the German Democratic Republic. Her burgeoning activism is further stoked by her father's involvement with the freedom movement and by a romantic relationship with Lucas, an idealistic piano student who wants Helena to flee to the West with him. When Helena is approached by the secret police, the Stasi, to inform on Lucas, she is forced to evaluate her loyalties and make decisions that will define her as an artist, daughter, citizen, and friend. Helena's voice is clear and earnest, and her desires and challenges easy for readers to grasp, although the consequences of Helena's choices are somewhat anticlimactic at times. Green's lyrical style features restrained use of imagery, with poetic elements most visibly expressed through line breaks and the positioning of words and phrases for rhythmic and expressive effect. Personification is also employed, with Helena's first-person narration interspersed with short sections in the voice of St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig; these sections use a pattern poem format, with the lines arranged in a pillar shape to reinforce the notion of collective strength. VERDICT This verse novel has thematic and stylistic similarities to works by Kip Wilson and will be of interest to those seeking read-alikes, as well as lovers of classical music. It could also support classroom units relating to the German Democratic Republic or political activism.—Leonie Jordan

School Library Journal