Alias Anna: A True Story of Outwitting the Nazis

by Susan Hood, Greg Dawson

A Sydney Taylor Book Award 2023 Middle Grade Notable! A Jewish Book Council Award Middle Grade Finalist! The moving true story of how young Ukrainian Jewish piano prodigies Zhanna (alias “Anna”) and her sister Frina outplayed their pursuers while hiding in plain sight during the Holocaust. A middle grade nonfiction novel-in-verse by award-winning author Susan Hood with Greg Dawson (Zhanna’s son). She wouldn’t be Zhanna. She’d use an alias. A for Anna. A for alive. When the Germans invade Ukraine, Zhanna, a young Jewish girl, must leave behind her friends, her freedom, and her promising musical future at the world’s top conservatory. With no time to say goodbye, Zhanna, her sister Frina, and their entire family are removed from their home by the Nazis and forced on a long, cold, death march. When a guard turns a blind eye, Zhanna flees with nothing more than her musical talent, her beloved sheet music, and her father’s final “I don’t care what you do. Just live.”  This incredible true story in-verse about sisterhood, survival, and music is perfect for fans of Lifeboat 12, Inside Out and Back Again, and Alan Gratz. Includes extensive back matter with original letters and photographs, additional information, and materials for further reading.

Genres: Middle Grade, Poetry, Nonfiction, Biography, History, Novel In Verse, World War II

368 pages, Paperback

First published March 22, 2022

About the author

Susan Hood is the award-winning author of many books for young readers, including Ada's Violin; Lifeboat 12; The Last Straw: Kids vs. Plastics; Shaking Things Up; Titan and the Wild Boars: The True Cave Rescue of the Thai Soccer Team; and We Are One: How the World Adds Up.

Susan is the recipient of an E. B. White Read-Aloud Picture Book Honor, the Christopher Award, the Américas Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature, the Golden Kite Award, and the Bank Street Flora Stieglitz Straus Award, given annually for “a distinguished work of nonfiction that serves as an inspiration to young people.”

COMING IN MARCH, 2022!
Susan's newest book is Alias Anna: A True Story of Outwitting the Nazis. Co-authored with Anna's (a.k.a. Zhanna's) son Greg Dawson, this biography in verse celebrates the life-saving power of the arts.

Reviews

[Fran · Rating 5 out of 5]

**Published 3/22/2022**

Zhanna Arshanskaya, a curious and fearless five year old girl, was given music lessons "to corral her energies...slowly, steadily...Chopin, Brahms, and Beethoven soon conjured up all that was good in the five year-old's life...Learning to play in the dark...[the way] Chopin taught his own students...pianists can show off their memory of the music and their mastery of the keys."

Ukraine, early 1930's. Dimitri was a candymaker. He was a self-taught violinist. Dimitri invested in a small upright piano shipped from Germany. Zhanna and Frina, two years her junior, lived with their parents in a home filled with music, literature and love. Two sisters, both piano prodigies, but so different in temperment; Zhanna always adventurous, Frina always "swaddling her dolls". In 1935, the Arshansky family was forced to move to a one room, run-down apartment in Kharkov, the former capital of Ukraine. Zhanna and Frina were soon accepted at the Kharkov Conservatory of Music.

"All music stopped, the way some birds go silent in the still air before a storm. A decree...all Jews must be evacuated...bone-chilling December cold...an eight mile march to a designated abandoned tractor factory...marching with small souvenirs of the lives they led...Dimitri's gold pocket watch...Zhanna's favorite piano piece, Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu "tucked inside her shirt, by her heart." A death march toward a ravine. A slim chance of survival. Dimitri's whispered words, "I don't care what you do. Just survive."

"...Compassion can be found where you least expect it...She'd hide behind a new identity-an alias...She wouldn't be Zhanna...she'd drop the Zh from her name and become Anna". Frina would become Marina. Anna and Marina Morozova. They needed to find an orphanage, the only place where official papers could be issued to validate made up names and ages. Playing the piano inside the orphanage, the music attracted passing German soldiers. They now had Nazi fans. "With expertise and emotion, Zhanna played her fury out, played her fear out, played her heart out."

It started with an eighth grade history project. What was life like when your grandparents were 13 years old? In 1940, Aimee's Grandma Z was 13 years old. In response to Aimee's letter of request for information for her project, Zhanna decided to share her long buried past. The floodgates were now opened. Journalist and author Greg Dawson, Zhanna's son, did extensive research on his mother's past, culminating in the tome, "Hiding in the Spotlight" published in 2009. In collaboration with children's author Susan Hood, Zhanna's story comes to life for readers ten years and older. "Susan's poetry create(s) a nonfiction biography in verse...to echo the music that played such a big part of their lives." "Alias Anna: How a Girl and Her Music Outwitted the Nazis" is a vivid, powerful, descriptive read. Most of the book is written in free verse with no set meter or rhyme scheme. This reader was blown away by the resolve displayed by two teenage virtuosos who were determined "to live". A must read for middle grade students.

Thank you HarperCollins and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Darla · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Kharkiv, Ukraine, there is a twisted menorah memorial for those who died at the infamous Drobitsky Yar on December 15, 1941. There are two names on that list of the dead who did not really die that day. Zhanna and Frina Arshanskaya escaped from the Nazis that day. Their father Dimitri said, I don't care what you do. Just live. And live they did. It was not easy. They were both gifted pianists and performed for the Nazi camps under aliases. Zhanna became Anna. This is her story in verse. It is a timely and informative read. We have read so much about what happened in Western Europe during WW II. With the eyes of the world on present-day Ukraine, this book gives us a lyrical and fact-based look at their past. Included in the book are Notes about What We Didn't Know, Photographs, the Letters that set the memories in motion, Finding Zhanna's Story (by her grandson Greg Dawson), The Pieces Zhanna and Frina Played, Fascinating Facts (Hitler, Stalin, and Music), Field Trips and Places of Note, and Poetry Notes. In addition to free verse, Susan Hood incorporated fifteen specific poetry types including a tercet, a cinquain, a haiku and many more. If you loved Lifeboat 12, you will definitely want to check this book out as well. The cover is a beautiful depiction of what you will find inside.

Thank you to HarperCollins and Edelweiss+ for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

[littlemiao · Rating 2 out of 5]

I almost didn’t finish this book because one passage hit me like a slap in the face. It is a verse retelling of a Shoah survivor’s account, written by a children’s book author in collaboration with the survivor’s son. I think these accounts are important and I honor their work. However, in one passage the author paints a discordantly sentimentalized view of Nazis and their victims experiencing music together. It baffles me that the author could not exert an effort to be sensitive regarding this particular subject.

The context is, two Ukrainian Jewish girls (Zhanna and Frina) manage to escape death at Drobitsky Yar. They survive in occupied Ukraine and then Germany in a performing troupe, being piano prodigies. Here is the passage:

“For a few short hours/
the world’s greatest composers/
Lifted the Jewish girls and Nazi officers/
to the same lofty plane/
high above the hatred and horrors of war./ The music reminded them all /
what it felt like to be human again.”

This cliche-laden and ahistorical passage could have been deleted from the book with no loss to narrative content. Instead, the author chose to frame the girls’ musical performance as a poignant moment of humanity shared by the Nazis and their victims amidst the horror of war.

Oversentimentalizing the power of music obscures how music functioned in the Nazi world. It was not an escape. Music didn’t hit the pause button on the horrors of war. Music was part of the Nazi’s totalizing program of social control. You can be sure that “the world’s greatest composers” included no Jews, nor even composers with Jewish ancestry. The Nazis used their thoroughly de-Judiaized music for their own “lofty” goals. They used it for morale. They used it to give their Third Reich of murderers the trappings of high culture. And they used it as a psychological weapon against Jews.

These children with their dead family seared into their eyes and a sword hanging over their head were not elevated to the same plane as the Nazis. They had a reprieve from death that could have ended literally any second. They were highly trained musical performers, and they used all their skills every moment of the day to stay alive. Music was their lifeboat in the midst of a tsunami, not their escape. Imagining them elevated to a lofty plane together with their would-be murderers is twisted and frankly repulsive.

I don’t expect a children’s book, a book of verse, or any book really, to provide the full context of events during the Shoah. I do expect them to avoid cliches that insult the intelligence of young readers and the memory of victims and survivors. There are so many ways that the author could have chosen to frame this passage, other ways she could have highlighted the power of music in difficult times if that was her goal here. We don’t need poetry to sanitize the Nazis and their relationship with music. We don’t need music to remind us of the Nazis’ humanity - they weren’t the ones being dehumanized.

Music did not elevate Nazis. Nazis degraded music. Injecting this gratuitous “oh look, Nazis are people too!” into a narrative based on survivors’ experiences is completely unnecessary. I appear to be the only reader who took issue with it. That itself is pretty disappointing.

While I respect the goals of the book, I found it disappointing and not just because of that single passage. The author’s desire to use various poetic forms seemed to shape the content, rather than the other way around. The narrative was diluted by superficial and trite phrases. If the author had any emotional connection with the subject she was working with, it did not come through to me.

To her son, Zhanna said of the Nazis: “I can never tell anyone what hatred I had for them.” When she was playing for her life, she was not on the “same lofty plane” as Nazi tormenters and murderers. Why would anyone even imagine such a thing?

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in less than 24 hours, and then passed it to a kid who did the same. This book will stay with you-and it should.

[Melanie Dulaney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zhanna Arkanskaya lived with her parents in Ukraine, loving to explore her city and the world around her. So much so, she ditched school and ended up in places where she shouldn’t be often enough that her candy-making father forced music lessons on her as a way to occupy her mind. It worked. Her mind and fingers came together on the keyboard to create such beautiful music that she was accepted into a prestigious music school and learned under the very best and was the second youngest to do so. Her younger sister was the first! But the 1930s was not a time to be Jewish in a region that would ultimately be torn between two evils-Hitler and Stalin. Evacuated and marched towards certain death, Zhanna’s father bribed a guard to look the other while he urged his daughter to run and to “just live.” Unexpectedly reunited with her sister Frina, the two girls did whatever they could to survive and that meant hiding their ancestry with new names and new papers while using their musical genius to entertain the Nazis. Alias Anna is a true story of these two survivors and will leave readers inspired and maybe even a bit awed at how the right pieces plus the girls’ determination allowed them to not only live, but eventually thrived. This must have book is geared toward a MG audience that generally begins to be intrigued by the WWII era, and with it’s focus on the girls path to survival, rather than the brutality of both the Nazis and the Red Army, can be easily placed in the hands of readers in grade 4. The richness of the NIV format and the history of the time period allow it to be meaningful for grade 8 and maybe even higher.

Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley,

[A.L. Sowards · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I don’t care what you do. Just live.”

So says Zhanna’s father before telling her to run away from the column of Jews being marched to Drobytsky Yar. Her father is smart enough to know that a massacre is coming, but he thinks Zhanna is strong enough to survive and small enough that the nearest guard will let her escape (with a pocket watch as bribe). And she does, and then she and her sister spend the rest of the war trying to stay alive.

As you might expect from a book set in Ukraine during WWII and the years leading up to it, this true story was harrowing. Zhanna and her sister Frina experienced true horrors—from the state-induced Ukrainian famine of the 1930s to the Nazi invasion and the holocaust. Because of the subject matter, this might be a better choice for the older end of middle grade and YA readers. I read it with my 11-year-old-twins and it made for some good discussions about history and warfare.

Though the subject matter is sad, the book is very well done. It’s one I won’t soon forget. There is something so compelling about young people trying to survive dark times. Each act of kindness seems more meaningful, each misstep has such potentially disastrous consequences, and each escape is such a huge victory.

Note: the style of the book took a while to get used to. It alternates third-person point of view and first-person point of view, and sometimes nonstandard font sizes and layouts are used to help tell the story. The chapters are very short, and it took a while (until the Holodomor) for my kids to be interested, but then they were hooked.

I highly recommend the book, for the appropriate audiences. I received a review copy from Netgalley and the publisher, but I plan on buying a copy for my home library when it releases next year.

[Caitlin Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was such an interesting story! I know I would have enjoyed it a lot more had the entire book not been written in free verse poetry 🙈

[Andrea Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing true story of courage through excruciating times. Zhanna's story is one very much needed during current times as well, as it can inspire people to take heart and choose to infuse the world with kindness when it is not deserved. I enjoyed reading the poignant, beautiful story. I loved how the sisters kept their passion for music even through the most terrible of experiences.

Interesting fact: The son of the leading lady co-wrote this book, and the granddaughter narrated it. That definitely added extra richness to the telling, to have that familial connection and witness the passion they have for their mother and grandmother's life.

Content: alcohol, 1-2 expletives, suicide

[Literary Redhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a moving true tale of two Ukrainian Jewish piano whizzes, Zhanna (aka Anna) and her sister Frina, who managed to escape certain death in WWII by running from the Nazis to freedom and using their musical gifts to survive. Gripping and inspiring!

Thanks to the authors, HarperCollins Children's Books, and NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are mine. Out March 22.

#aliasanna #netgalley

[Carolyn Scarcella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Today I’m reading a teen adult novel called Alias Anna: A True Story of Outwitting the Nazis by Susan Hood with Greg Dawson is narrated by Zhanna's granddaughter Aimée Dawson. This book is for the young version, Greg Dawson, he didn’t know the story about his mother’s holocaust until his daughter Aimee studied about the Holocaust and she had to interview her grandmother Zhanna. He found out when he was in his sixties and decided to write his first book based on his mother’s story as an adult version called “ Hiding in the Spotlight: A Musical Prodigy's Story of Survival, 1941-1946”. He said his mother never told her family until she was in her seventies when her granddaughter wrote her a letter at the time. I thoroughly enjoyed the book because the book was well written by poetry, and the music. It was easy to read, and it has a photo included in the end in the book. The Ukrainian sisters Zhanna and her sister Frina, were both gifted musicians and their family had lived and grew up in Berdyansk, Ukraine, a resort town on the north coast of the sea of Avov. As a result, did the family survive the Holocaust. You can decide?

[Bonnie Grover · Rating 5 out of 5]

How did I miss that this was a Susan Hood book? It is also coauthored by Zhanna’s son, which added so much depth to this book.

This is the true story of how one young girl used her musical talent to survive the Holocaust with her younger sister. This is written in free verse which not only adds an emotional aspect, but enhances the musical portion as well. Photos and the letter which inspired the book as well as historic sources are included in this book. I highly recommend reading this and sharing it with a young person.

[Joy Kirr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in prose, we learn about "Anna" (who is really Zhanna) and her struggles as a jew in Ukraine during WWII. Have you heard of the killing field of Drobitsky Yar? I hadn't. There's a monument in Ukraine for the 4,300 known names of the 16,000 people who died there, and Zhanna's name is on it. She was supposed to have died. How did music save her - and her sister? I have this under historical fiction, but it's actually NONfiction. This is a fast book that taught me a lot in a short amount of time. Another facet of WWII that many might not know.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really well done. If you liked The Lost Years or Symphony for the city of the Dead this is right up your alley. It’s a labor of family history love. One of the authors was the son of Zhanna and the granddaughter did the narration. It’s a novel in verse but with Zhanna’s own words like straight from a family history interview. I almost wish it was a little longer or fleshed out a little more but so good. Great for middle grade readers.

[Brandee · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a phenomenal story! Brought me to tears! I am so glad that this true story was not only captured for us to read but also made into a novel for young readers as well.
More detailed review to come.


July 4, 2024 – page 9
2.56% "I absolutely love that the audio book is narrated by the main characters' family. Makes this book even more amazing!"
July 4, 2024 – page 51
14.49% "I still cannot fathom how the soldiers treated the Jews and others. You could clearly tell that some families were barely scraping by but they still barged in to find their riches? What else could they take from them? 😞"
July 4, 2024 – page 66
18.75% "I absolutely love that the sisters were able to learn music from such amazing teachers. For Zhanna, a traditional school just wasn't for her, so it is so beautiful to see that this school saw their talent and wanted to help them grow even more! I wish they had recordings back then, so this generation could hear their music"
July 4, 2024 – page 85
24.15% "I never realized that Stalin was as much of a horrible person as Hitler. Obviously Hitler was significantly worse, but Stalin not warning his people of incoming threats was basically allowing Hitler to do what he wanted. How despicable!"
July 4, 2024 – page 115
32.67% "I can't believe all that Zhanna got away with in order for her to care for her family. Go Zhanna!"
July 4, 2024 – page 124
35.23% "I understand why her dad did what he did but that couldn't have been easy for anyone involved. This must have happened a lot during the Holocaust and I can't imagine the pain so many families felt"
July 4, 2024 – page 139
39.49% "It is so beautiful to see examples of humanity and generosity during this horrible time. I know some people wanted to hide Jews or offer support but were too afraid but I am so grateful that some didn't care about the risk. And YAY! So happy that something happened (no spoilers sorry)"
July 4, 2024 – page 174
49.43% "It must have been difficult to give up their identity and assume another one. I know that was the only way to survive but I wonder how hard it was. I know it would be for me."
July 4, 2024 – page 228
64.77% "It must have been so hard to play in all the camps. Not only were they seeing people like them be prisoners and slave laborers, but there was always the chance that they could get caught. Music truly did save them, but it couldn't have been easy"
July 4, 2024 – page 259
73.58% "Again Stalin sometimes was just as bad as Hitler. People who somehow escaped the German soldiers now coming back home to Russia were punished? Ridiculous! Zhanna had saved Frina and now Frina was saving Zhanna."
July 4, 2024 – page 272
77.27% "Decided to listen to Zhanna's favorite piece and whoa! Definitely recommend listening to it and a few of the other pieces mentioned throughout this book!"
July 4, 2024 – page 296
84.09% "What a powerful statement: "Humiliation is much worse than death. Our honor is life itself. Being harassed and humiliated for things they can't control could, in its worst state, bubble up into [what] Hitler created - a mindset that is true bulling.""

[Sarah Bowling · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m really growing to enjoy books written in verse! There’s something about a story written in verse that penetrates more deeply into your heart. Based on a true story and written in part by a descendent of the main character, this account of two Jewish girls hiding in plain sight in the midst of WWII is just beautifully written. I’ve already added it to my list of WWII books I want my daughter to read during the coming school year (6th grade).

CC: the horrors of what Jews and others faced during WWII are handled without gore while not diminishing the weight of it

[Cynthia Feenstra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t realize this was a middle school book until I had already checked it out from the digital library. I figured I might as well finish this short book.
This middle school grade book is beautifully written and filled with themes of evil, war, family, love, and art!

[Jeanne Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good intro into these remarkable sisters who hid in the spotlight during WW2 and entertained those who slaughtered their family

[Ginny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Follett for the paper ARC!
What an amazing book! This is a book written for children to be able to understand a piece of the holocaust story. "This is how you tell a child." Co-authored by the son of "Anna", author of the adult version "Hiding in the Spotlight".
The story of how two young piano prodigy sisters escaped the killing fields of Drobitsjy Yar in Ukraine and subsequently avoided the Nazis , hiding in plain sight.
This will grab your heart. Thinking of how many holocaust experiences we've been privileged to hear and read about, how many millions more will never be known? How many children never had the chance to live a lifetime?

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gentle yet powerfully written account of how two sisters who were piano prodigies escaped being killed by the Nazis by hiding in the spotlight their talents provided. This is written for young readers and I'm anxious to read the story written for adults.

[Jennifer Mangler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for a good novel in verse, and this one tells a fascinating true story. I couldn't put it down.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Susan Hood has beautifully told, in verse, this true story with Greg Dawson who also wrote the story in his own book, Hiding in the Spotlight, about Zhanna and her sister Frina. He is Zhanna's son. They were young Ukrainian Jewish piano prodigies. After a heartbreaking goodbye to parents and other family members, they fulfilled their father's words: "I don't care what you do. Just live." Eventually, Zhanna became the sister of the book's title, "Alias Anna". Frina became known as Marina. And live they did, for long years after being liberated after the war's end, and continuing on with their music, raising families.

The story is both heartrending and nerve-wracking, not an easy read, as these sisters learned new identities, then really did "hide in the spotlight" as people, including Nazis, applauded their talents, and adored the music performed. It is amazing to read of their courage as they played before those who would have killed them if their identities had been discovered.

It was nice to read about Zhanna's and Frina's childhood, how they were as young children, how they began their life of music. Hood has also included the tragic history of not only Nazi atrocities but then those of Stalin, too, after the war. The story gives the sad history of the past as we are watching more sadness and killings by Russia in Ukraine today.

Lots of backmatter is included with photos and letters, explanations of the poetry styles used, and a list for further reading.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alias Anna is so unique: the true story of the survival of two young, musically gifted Jewish teens, Zhanna and Frina. As Ukraine is invaded by Nazi Germany, and their family is marched to their death, the two sisters escape and go on to live (and play music) under fake names. Having kept her past a secret until late in life, Zhanna finally tells her story when her teen granddaughter asks her: "What was your life like when you were my age?"

Alias Anna is written in prose, which makes it easy to read. Direct quotes from Zhanna herself are mixed into this prose. There's also a healthy chunk of information at the back of the book, including:
The history of the "Holocaust by bullets" in the USSR (including massacres at Babi Yar and Drobitsky Yar);
Photographs of Zhanna and Frina throughout their lives;
The story of the correspondence between Zhanna and her granddaughter, Aimee, that led to this book being written;
An Afterword by Zhanna's son, who cowrote Alias Anna and wrote two other books about his mother;
A list of the piano pieces that Zhanna and Frina played;
Fascinating facts about music during WWII;
And more.

Together, the story written in prose, along with the supplemental information provided, I found this to be a very enriching reading experience. I expect to share it with my middle grade kiddos soon!

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

First sentence: Dear Grandma (Z), Hi, how are you doing? I hope everything is going well for you right now. I am writing this letter for a school history project we are doing. The project is to find out as much as possible about our grandparents and what was going on when they were thirteen years old...

Premise/plot: Alias Anna is a historical novel for middle graders based on a true story. Inspired by her granddaughter's letter, a grandmother begins to share with granddaughter and son her life story. That is the framework of this one. This story is communicated with readers through verse. Readers learn of Zhanna (alias Anna) and her younger sister, Frina. The story begins in the days before the terror. Well, the majority of the terror. I'm not sure easy would be the best way to describe life in Communist Russia (Ukraine) for a Jewish family (or any family). But music fills their lives....and may just be the girls' salvation.

My thoughts: On the one hand, this is a solidly good story. The narrative is compelling. The book is packed with so much. It's dramatic without being melodramatic. The sisters' bond is touching. And the twist that it was ultimately her unwillingness to be separated from her sister that saved her life (and gave birth to future generations of family) is something. I can't regret for a minute meeting these characters and learning their stories. On the other hand, I'm not exactly sure why it has to be written in verse. The narrative isn't one that begs to be written in verse. Prose would have done just as well in my opinion. That being said, I would have been hooked either way.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Verse biography of Zhanna Arshanskaya, a Jewish Ukrainian girl who somehow defied the odds and survived World War II with her younger sister Frina. They grew up poor but happy in the coastal Ukrainian city of Berdyansk in a music-filled house. When Stalin invaded Ukraine, the family moved to the city of Kharkov and the girls landed scholarships to the music conservatory which covered tuition and the family’s living expenses. Things continued to get worse and one day Soviet soldiers marched Zhanna’s family to Dobritsky Yar where almost everyone was shot. Somehow Zhanna escaped. She changed her name to the less Jewish name of Anna and spent the rest of the war “Hiding in the Spotlight” which is the title of the Holocaust book written by coauthor and son of Zhanna, Greg Dawson. Includes photographs, a list of songs Zhanna and Frina performed, bibliographic references, descriptions of some of the poetic types, and the story of how Zhanna finally told her life story to her family by answering a letter from her granddaughter.

[Jerri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Upon the recommendation of some students, I read this book. When I say I read the book, I mean, I listened to it, which I feel was a disservice, as upon finishing and listening to the end notes, this novel was written in verse with numerous poems being written in specific formats, which was lost on me as a listener.
The story, itself, highlights, family, bonds, and promises, in addition to being a survival story. Without music, the Ukrainian sisters at the center of the story would’ve been killed along with others in their family their dads admonition to “just live “served them well.
There were numerous facts woven into the story that I was unaware of, such as the number of Ukrainian Jewish people who were murdered by the Nazis. I was also unaware of the way Russia treated its citizens who had been taken prisoner out of Russia during the war. Upon their arrival back in their mother country, many of them were treated as enemies of the state and imprisoned or killed.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sisters Zhanna and Frina were incredibly talented pianos players. When the nazis invaded Ukraine, they and their Jewish relatives were forced from their home. Their father bribed the guards to let the girls go, and they returned to their hometown, but had to be careful and clever to evade detection. To hide their Jewish background, they become Anna and Marina. When their musical abilities are discovered, they are removed from an orphanage and play accompaniments for dancers at concerts. Though their music saves them, it’s a constant form of stress as they worry their past will catch up with them.

Seriously so good! A definite page turner. I listened to the audiobook, which is good, but obviously misses out on some of the poetic touches. I can’t find the background PDF on Libby, so I will have to track down the book and take a look.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an amazing story of survival under the most heinous circumstances during WWII and the Holocaust in Ukraine. Eerily timely, too, with Russia's invasion of and agression towards Ukraine right now. A true story Zhanna, and her sister Frina, and their unimaginaable escape from the mass graves and genocide that took place in Ukraine in 1941, as well as their struggle to then survive the war. Both accomplished pianists, music essentially saved them. They were "discovered" and then became part of a troupe of performers for Nazi officers and other war dignitaries. Chilling and terrifying, considering their hidden Jewish identities. Unfortunately, I found the poetic form to be far more distracting than lyrical. There were too many different forms and poetic experimentations that somehow minimalized the horrific impact of the story being told. This book may appeal to middle grade readers and teens, but for me, not a favorite.

[Tara Ethridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love Susan Hood's other novel in verse, Lifeboat 12, so I was excited to see this new novel based on a true story. Zhanna and her sister were young musical prodigies before WW2, and they both were able to escape while on their way to a concentration camp. This novel tells of their struggles and their lives on their own. They wind up changing their Jewish names and spending a lot of their young lives entertaining the Nazis by playing music. Very heartbreaking but touching story that Zhanna herself kept a secret for 50 years after the war until her granddaughter interviewed her for a school project. Great for upper elementary and middle school.

[Melinda Borda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story follows Zhanna and Frina, two girls in the Ukraine whose parents give their lives for their daughters to have a chance to survive the Germans in WW2. Zhanna and Frina change their names to live as non-Jewish girls, and every day they fear that their secret will be discovered. Zhanna lives as Anna, and her prowess as a musician lands her a job in a troupe who performs for the Nazis. Anna tries to stay out of the spotlight, but at every turn, she looks danger in the eye.

This story (like so many other sets in WW2) is a story of survival and of courage. Both Zhanna and Frina survive the war. Zhanna chooses to hide much of her past even from her family. But one day, her granddaughter Aimee starts to ask questions, and Zhanna decides to answer them.

"Sometimes people you've opened your heart to can fail you. Sometimes compassion can be found where you least expect it."

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy in return for an honest review.

As Zhanna's family marches to what is certain death, her father tells her to run away and says, "“I don’t care what you do. Just live.”

This was an incredibly well written book and what a powerful story, just wow. Definitely one to add to the classroom library.