Green’s gorgeous novel in verse would make a perfect pair with Ruta Sepetys’s I Must Betray You.

Helena lives in East Germany in 1989, where Communists rule, and it is dangerous to dream. And yet she does dream, longing to be a conductor and one day travel beyond the Berlin Wall. Her father dreams of free elections, and her mother dreams of being able to enjoy fresh oranges again.

In the meantime Helena finds joy in music, learning to play the music of Wagner, Mozart, and Bach from her piano teacher, a passion she shares with her best friend, Katrin. When Katrin and her family defect, however, Helena is devastated.

But Katrin’s departure also gives Helena a new boldness, joining her father in the peace meetings and protests held at Saint Nicholas Church. Her boldness also comes from her growing relationship with Lucas, the young man who takes Katrin’s place with their piano teacher. But how close can two people get in a country where the Stasi, the secret police, are constantly watching, turning citizens against one another by threatening them into becoming informants?

The novel in verse sheds light on the experience of those on the Eastern side of the Berlin Wall in the not-too-distant past, and it’s also full of hope, as we watch Helena and her friends and family risk their lives to stand up for the peace and freedom they so deeply desire.

Thank you NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are our own.

Will be posted at https://threeheads.works/category/blog/ya-books/ on 5/20/24.

This was a beautiful story of the divided Germany during the Cold War. I loved the hope that was evident throughout.

A book I think would be perfect for high schoolers through adults. While I wouldn't use this book in my elementary classroom, I definitely could see this book being adopted into a high school curriculum.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing me with a copy, all thoughts are my own!

5/5 stars

"I've not been raised to speak of dreams-nor to dream at all.There is no need.
(...)
But I do want. Secretly quietly in the deepest corner of my heart. I want."

This isn't a book, well of course it is, but for me it felt like-as the title says-a song. A song which fights for what it's right, a song about freedom, a song about the freedom to dream and to be able to fulfill those dreams in a place and a time where such thing is unthinkable.

"Everyone deserves to experience music in a way that awakens their soul that astounds with beauty that strengthens them for whatever battles lie within and without"

We all deserve to be strengthened by music, and this "song" does exactly that. It gives hope and courage to those who "listen" to it.

This story couldn't be more perfect, I devoured it in one night!

Young Adult novel story about an unforgettable story of friendship, first love, and an impossible choice between integrity and duty, family and friends, all while fighting for a dream.

This book is like a melody which stays with you long after the music ends...

If you're an avid verse novel reader or someone new to the verse novel game, this is the book for you! I feel very honoured to have been given a sneak peek at this brilliant book.

Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams is a thought-provoking and beautiful bildungsroman by Shari Green which conveys the harsh realities of living through an incredibly fraught, difficult and oppressive time. I particularly enjoyed the use of emotive flashbacks which offers readers an insight into the violence of the past: 'a guard / a bullet / and a boy from Berlin / who would never return home' and found the first person perspective engaging from the start. The author builds tension effectively as we watch the young protagonist, Helena, burn with a desire to become involved in protests whilst being held back by her anxious mother. We're also with Helena as she longs for her best friend Katrin to return after a mysterious disappearance and we hold our breath with her as Lucas steps onto the scene...

This book is a testimony to how resilient humans can be in the face of adversity and offers a timely reminder about the power of protest. The poignant language and message of hope captured me from the start and I honestly couldn't put this book down.

As an educator, I plan to recommend this book wholeheartedly to my students (especially those interested in history and those trying to expand their reading horizons). The multiple references to different composers and the impact their works can have are also great for building cultural capital and encouraging students to develop a love for the arts. The novel would also be the perfect class reader alongside a protest or conflict scheme of work- my mind is buzzing with ideas about including this in my school's current English curriculum. I've already asked the school librarian to purchase a copy ASAP!

The book is released on 5th March 2024 and is available to pre-order now!

Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy of Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

In a Nutshell: A YA novel-in-verse about a young girl’s wishful thoughts and experiences in socialist East Germany in the late 1980s. I don’t think it worked well as a novel-in-verse, but as a novel, it is amazing.

Plot Preview:
1989. Sixteen-year-old Helena has just one dream: to become a music conductor. Does she really have only one dream? No. But this is the only dream she can dare to speak about openly in a nation where everyone and everything is watched by the dreaded Stasi.
When some key people in her life take up greater roles in the protests against the government, Helena has to decide whether staying quiet is stifling the song of freedom.
The story comes to us in the first person perspective of Helena.

The Berlin Wall, which separated East Germany (GDR) & West Germany (FRG) in more ways than just physical, was metaphorically broken on 9th November 1989, when civilian protests caused the GDR government to allow their citizens freedom to visit West Berlin, and thereby, FRG. This story begins in August 1989, so through Helena’s narration, we are witness to the life of East German citizens in the final few months before this historical announcement.
Imagine the claustrophobia of being a prisoner in your own country while still not being imprisoned. Helena’s narration makes us see the greyness of life in GDR, where even common fruit such as oranges are nothing but unattainable dreams, where the citizens squash down their hunger for more with what spiel the government feeds them.
Imagine also the butterfly of hope fluttering in your heart when you hear that there is peaceful rebellion in the offing, that the citizens are planning to protest not with ammunition or violence but with prayer and candles. As a young adult who has been instructed all life long to keep dreams within limits, Helena infuses us too with her repressed yearning. She loves her country but wants it to be more, and we can see why.
Helena is just sixteen, but because of her constrained life in her socialist nation, her narration doesn’t suffer from the immaturity and self-absorption we typically see in YA fiction. She has her ambitions and hopes, but she also has her worries and heartbreaks. How she grows from an obedient girl who toes the line to someone who dares step beyond the societal and political limits is a journey worth watching. Through her budding feelings for Lucas, the book contains just the right dash of young love to the mix without making it sappy or sentimental.
Through Helena’s parents and her romantic interest Lucas, we also get to see three types of GDR citizens – the rule follower, the subtle protestor, and the open rebel. As Helena is close to all three of them, her struggle to decide on her course of action is understandable. I appreciate how the author didn’t make her journey smooth. Some of Helena’s decisions are questionable, but rather than viewing them with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight vision, it is imperative to ask: what would we do were we in her place?
There’s a sense of melancholy throughout the book even when Helena’s spirit is infused with dreams. An event mentioned in the author’s acknowledgements made me wonder if that situation subconsciously influenced the tone of the book. Nevertheless, the approach suits the story. There is something beautiful about the juxtaposition of pensiveness and hopefulness.
Helena’s passion for music isn’t just restricted to her aspiration of becoming a music conductor, but is used concretely in the narrative, whether through the act of venting emotions through music or passing on missives through music notations. Her fervour enhances through the story just as a musical tempo would – rising steadily until the crescendo at the end. As a music lover, I relished the role of music in this story.
Unlike most stories of protest, this tale doesn’t scream or yell. The song of freedom is a peaceful song, a harmonious voice that gains strength from the cohesive unity of the citizen protestors. So this book wouldn’t work for those who want something more vehement, more aggressive. It represents a melody sung from the heart, not from the mouth. And with an end that is more hope than happiness, the song ends on the right note.
As the story begins just a few months before the collapse of the GDR government, it is obvious that some familiarity with the history is presupposed. So if you feel like understanding Helena’s decisions better, you might want to read the author’s note first (it is at the end of the book and offers enough information without spoiling anything) or just look up the details of the Berlin Wall online. There’s also a glossary at the end for the German words and phrases.
The only negative of the book for me is that there is barely anything poetic about the writing style. Now, I need to clarify that this declaration is highly baseless, not just because I am not fond of poetry but also because I do not understand this kind of freewheeling poetry. To me, poems are all about rhyme and rhythm, and in this book, I saw neither of those. But as my knowledge about poetry is zilch, please feel free to ignore this paragraph. I read this book as I read every novel-in-verse: as a regular prose novel. I just ran through the sentences like I read normal text. Sacrilege, I agree. But it works for me much better than reading it as a poem would as my brain rebels against poetry.
All in all, this is a beautiful story of a girl who lives with fear but learns to hope. Though a YA book, it would suit anyone interested in a story set at such a momentous point of recent history. There are barely any YA works about this event, so I love that this book exists. It would also be a great novel for classroom discussions for the 15+ age group.

4 stars.

My thanks to Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for the DRC of “Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

3.5 Stars (Outliner opinion)
One Liner: Heartwarming and hopeful (but missing something)

1989, Germany
Helena and Katrin are best friends living in East Germany. The country is in turmoil with the Berlin Wall diving both sides and people torn apart or wanting to take any risk for a better life. Helana has to come to terms with the changes and make decisions that could affect her and others. How does the sociopolitical situation affect the citizens’ lives, and how does music help Helena?
The story comes in poetic verse narration from Helena’s POV.

My Thoughts:
First things first… The book is set in 1989. It is Not historical fiction… Grr!
I quite enjoy novels in verse. Though, TBH, I read the poems like prose to avoid being distracted by the uneven rhythm. Both options didn’t work here. The content is pretty much sentences broken into lines of random length. While it works in some places, it doesn’t in others.
Presenting a complex theme like this in verse isn’t easy. As you can see, the results are mixed for me. It took a while (almost half the book) to get into the flow. I could feel the impact only in the last quarter.
Helena is an introverted sixteen-year-old, sheltered but also aware of the situation, a little rebellious without ignoring safety concerns. Most importantly, music and her best friend Katrin are very important to her (parents, too, of course).
While the entire book has a sense of melancholy and uncertainty, there are glimpses of hope and certainty that come from stubborn determination.
Despite the supposed intensity of emotions and the situation, I couldn’t connect to the character or the setting. I feel it would have worked better if the story was in proper prose with some poems interwoven into the narrative. The scenes where Helena feels music in nature and her love for music read well in poetry. The rest of it would benefit from a better structure.
Nevertheless, the ending is quite nice, hopeful, and heartwarming. The last section is the strongest, IMO.
There’s a detailed author’s note with more information (and reference links) about the context- the real nonviolent marches, the role of music, and the results. There’s some personal information, too (unrelated to the story). My heartfelt condolences to her.

To summarize, Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams deals with beautiful and important themes from a critical part of the world’s history. It’s the presentation that didn’t appeal much to me.
I am very much on the outliner island (the only 3-star when it was posted), so please check the other reviews before you decide.
Thank you, NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
********
The rating will be rounded up to 4 stars on Amazon.

A beautiful bildungsroman written in gorgeous verse about a pianist's coming of age in East Germany when the walls went down. By the talented author of one of my fav books, MISSING MIKE.

This book was really well written. I enjoyed how the characters related to one another in verse.
I highly recommend this read for young readers who enjoy reading poetry and historical fiction. This story has a lot of heart and captured the difficulties of being a teenager in Germany in this time period well.

Reading this book to begin with I thought was poetry until I realised its a story in verses that's said with such grace and also goes into depth about live in the 1980s in Germany, filled with many subjects that I won't lie pulled at my heartstrings a bit, where experiencing music that awakened their soul to feel and see though the eyes of music is quite beautiful,

The story is more then just about a girl and her family because the story has you enraptured from start to finish wanting the best for them, but also caring with easy tun of the page.

I will read more from this author in the future

I also want to thank netgalley for an advanced Arc

Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams is an expertly-written text that focuses on coming of age during a time of social and political unrest. The power of this narrative is that it begins almost in a stream-of-consciousness style where we come to understand the impact and long-lasting ramifications that all members of a community face due to corruption and manipulation of those in power. The fact that it's written in verse strengthens the backdrop of the lyrical and musical significance within the text and empowers conversations about censorship across forms.

Unique and beautiful writing style and an incredibly touching story. I‘ve never read a story like this one, definitely a highlight!

Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams
by Shari Green
Pub Date 05 Mar 2024
Andrews McMeel Publishing
Children's Fiction| Teens & YA



Disclaimer: This is a Young Adult Novel dealing with war and the protests leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall. The book is scheduled for release in March 2024.

The book Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams was provided to me by Andrews McMeel Publishing and Netgalley for review


In Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams, a young pianist in East Germany struggles to make sense of love, duty, and the pursuit of dreams during the unsettling months leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall in the late 1980s. Beautifully written in lyrical verse,




The story of Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams is one of hope, courage, romance, and the power of music to change and save lives.



I give Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

A heart achingly, beautiful read that hits a bit too close to home. Such an interesting format, a first for me.

"It’s a wonderful thing
how a particular pattern
of notes can lift hearts
and stir memories."

Shari Green has written a story that is achingly beautiful and melodic. Helena's story is engaging, fast paced, and well written. I really enjoyed the way the text dealt with how different people process oppression: some are bold, forceful, and outspoken, while others fight back in quieter, smaller ways. Fans of Ruta Sepetys' "I Must Betray You" will love this.

This beautiful novel-in-verse touches on a piece of history we don't often hear about in YA books. Set in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin wall, Helena, a sixteen year old girl who dreams of being a conductor, gives us a front-row view of the peaceful protests and bravery of ordinary citizens that finally brought about the reunification of Germany. Through the power of music, notably on the piano, Helena's instrument of choice, we witness a story of hope, courage, and love strong enough to change hearts and save lives.

This is the first time I read a YA historical fiction set in GDR (German Democratic Republic or East Germany, time before the Berlin Wall falls). The verse format makes it digestible to read despite the heavy theme. Though there is no 'war scene', the mood of the book is thick with tension, finding myself rooting for Helena to be safe and somehow also reaching for her dreams. It is centered around Leipzig peaceful protests and I like how the message about fighting with what we have is delivered here.

Since the setting is new to me, in the beginning I kinda struggle to grasp what the atmosphere is like, how the city landscape and the neighborhood is like, how the political climate is like in a broader, exposition sense. Maybe because I get used to historical fiction prose that's detailed and elaborated rather than in-verse snippets. At first I thought Helena's mission is to find Katrin and reunite again along with their families, since Helena doesn't show any strong support in protests that her father participates. She mainly cares about music, and that's where her fight begins.

If you like music-inspired fiction, historical setting that's more 'modern' yet still reminds us that there's more to do for justice, and are a fan or want to try a novel-in-verse, you may like this one. I've done this in two sittings so page turner is definitely guaranteed.

Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams is a book told in verse through a series of poems that touch on the idea of uncertainty, dreams, and freedom. This book would be great for any advanced reader looking to broaden their vocabulary or comprehension of poetry.
This book is written really beautifully with verses that tug on your heartstrings.

Spare, aching, and hopeful. Perfect for those who enjoyed Ruta Sepetys’ “I Must Betray You”. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!