This is a sometimes hard to read novel of a Jewish mother and daughter- Roza and Shira- who hide from the Nazis on a Polish farm until Roza makes the tough decision to separate from Shira in order to improve Shira's chance at life. Both are musicians and silence is tough for them. The yellow bird is Shira's imaginary friend, a way to escape if only for a moment or two from the reality of their situation. Life on the farm is hard- compounded by the abuse Roza suffers but her love for Shira shines through. Although primarily set 1941-1945, it vaults ahead to 1965 NYC at the end- no spoilers on why and what happened. Rosner has clearly thought a lot about the effects of silence on a child, especially a musical one. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. This is well written and while it might be shelved with other WWII fiction, it transcends the genre.

The Yellow Bird Sings will forever be one of my favorites among Holocaust related fiction. On the surface, this is a story of pain and survival, but at its heart, it’s a story of love between mother and daughter. Throughout the entire novel, music is an underlying theme that connects the two, no matter how far apart they are.

Shira, at just five-years-old, is a bright child whose vivid imagination helps her cope amid the fifteen-month silence she endures. She creates an imaginary bird to sing and play in all the ways she cannot. Her mother simultaneously whispers bedtime stories about a young girl and her bird who always outwit the danger that surrounds them. Their situation will pull at your heartstrings. They are being hidden from a death camp where all of their family has perished, yet this barn offers minimal safety, and only for so long.

When they are separated, the book follows each of their paths and how they spend every moment searching for one another. In both of their stories they find mistreatment and hardship, but it is stymied by moments of kindness and concern. While apart, everything from second chances at love, becoming a musical prodigy, forging friendships, overcoming illness, embracing other religions, endless searching and the resistance camps are fleshed out. For whatever reason, the book reads quietly. Perhaps it’s the poetic prose, or the silence that encumbers it; I’m not sure. There are many books that I’ve described as a “quiet read”; I wish I had a better way to articulate my meaning.

Interestingly, this story was inspired by a woman the author met at a book event who survived WW2, by being hidden and silenced. Rosner has written a memoir, about being a mother to her deaf daughters and a children’s book that weaves together a Jewish folktale with a disabled character. This is her first foray into adult fiction; she is a fresh voice to this genre and has hit the mark on creating a compelling story that readers and book clubs will devour.

Poland, 1941, Roza and her daughter, five-year-old Shira, are hiding in a barn. German soldiers regularly patrol the area. Complete silence is required. Roza tells Shira magical stories and passes down music to Shira, a musical prodigy. Fifteen months pass, silence, close to starvation, rape. The Germans come to take over the barn and Roza and Shira are forced. The farmer's wife knows someone, who knows someone, and they spirit Shira into an convent orphanage/shelter where it is hoped she will be safe. While at the convent, her hair is bleached blond to disguise her. She picks up a violin and starts to play. The nuns realize she has a great talent and they find a teacher to work with her. She ends up playing for the Nazis who are occupying the towns.
In the meantime, Roza finds a group of partisans and joins with their group to fight. The war eventually ends, and Roza starts a years-long search to find Shira. The last quarter of the book follows Roza and her life, and Shira and her life.
A heart-warming story about a mother's devotion to help her daughter survive, no matter the odds.

Having won this book in a Goodreads giveaway and excited to read a different story of WWII, I was ultimately left a bit disappointed. A mother and her little girl hide from the Nazis in Poland, forcing the parent to make untenable decisions about their future. The story involves an imaginary bird, music, and well-researched history about how Jewish children were hidden during the Holocaust. Yet I found myself wanting more - more tension in the beginning, more depth to the characters, less descriptive details. I did find the final third of the book to be more compelling, and appreciated the realistic ending.

I am always fascinated by an author’s ability to write about an abhorrent time in history and turn it into something of beauty and this is just what Jennifer Rosner has accomplished in her latest novel.

A Jewish mother and her 5 year old daughter find themselves seeking shelter in a barn in the Polish countryside. Luckily for them, the farmer and his wife agree to let them stay for a time in as long as they remain quiet and hidden. Of course, it does come at a cost, but it is not as great as what they would face on the run.

Having had a background in music, the mother keeps her daughter entertained by telling her lyrical stories. From these stories, the daughter creates a make believe world in which she has a yellow bird as her companion.

As time goes on it becomes too dangerous for them to be hiding in the barn, so the mother makes an agonizing decision to separate them and send her daughter to live in safety with some nuns at an orphanage.

It is there that the child’s talent is brought forth, and in a sense, becomes her safety net. Throughout their time of separation, the mother is facing her own struggles as she tries to find her daughter while the war is coming to an end.

Readers who enjoy historical fiction and beautiful, descriptive writing will find their sweet spot with this novel. Others will be happy to hear there are no concentration camps featured in the story. I rate this a solid 4.5 stars.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during that 2nd attempt, I have only managed to make it halfway through so I’d rather stop here and state that this book just wasn't for me.
I wish the author, publisher, and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

This is a beautifully written debut novel that moved me in so many ways. It a story of the Holocaust, of hidden children, of the courage and determination of the resistance, of the horrific things the Jews endured - cold and starvation and fear and loss and death. Yet, there are moments of joy and beauty, lovely stories and music and so much love between a mother and daughter that helps sustain them through these times, and an imagined yellow bird that brings solace to a little girl.

Five year old Shira, a music prodigy must keep totally silent holding the music in her head, unable to speak most times to her mother Roza as they hide from the German soldiers in a neighbor’s barn. Roza is forced to endure abuse from the farmer in order to keep them safe and hidden. They have been forced to flee their home when Roza’s mother and father and husband are victims of horrific acts as the Nazis take over Poland and they have no where else to go. The narrative follows Shura and Roza, spaning several years from 1941 - 1944, and then moving abruptly in the end to 1965. I’m not going to talk about what happens during these years because it’s a story that I highly recommend people read for themselves. Instead, I want to mention a particular passage that touched me early on in the novel and how after reading the author’s note, it became so much more meaningful as I learned of her inspiration for the book.

“When it is too dangerous even for whispers, Shira and her mother gesture. A simple finger near the ear means I hear someone...A neighbor (palms facing, held near). Soldiers (fists clenched at the chest, as if around a gun). A stranger, they don’t know who(eyebrows raised). Taps on different parts of the body show hunger, thirst, pain, a full bladder. A band on a clump of hair, Do you want a braid. It passed a bit of time. A brush of the fingers over closing eyelids, Try to rest now. Shira watches her mother’s lips shape prayers in Hebrew before falling off to sleep. This more than anything calms Shira, for in her mind she hears her mother’s silent chants as music.” (This quote is from an advanced copy and I suppose maybe subject to change, but I hope not.)

In her note at the end, Jennifer Rosner mentions her daughters who are deaf and I realized why this passage resonated so much. Her inspiration was a story relayed to her by a woman who was hidden with her mother in an attic “where she needed to stay silent nearly all the time. I imagined the mother’s experience of trying to keep her young child hushed, an effort exactly opposite of mine , which focused on encouraging my children to vocalize as much as possible. ...Soon I found myself immersed in a new project involving silence, separation, loss, and above all, love. “ She also tells of the music in her life and then how she was further inspired by meeting a luthier, “who was asked to rebuild a violin recovered from a Nazi death camp, ashes still inside it.” This is one of those stories that I know will stay with me because I woke up thinking about Roza and Shira and because we cannot forget what happened during the Holocaust.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Flatiron Books through NetGalley.

A beautiful and haunting WWII novel about a Jewish mother in Poland who takes her daughter into hiding after her husband is executed by the Nazis and her parents taken to a ghetto. This was an amazing portrayal of a mother's love and how far she would go to save her child, even if it means having to separate. My heart just broke for Roza and Shira and everything that they had to endure to survive. Thank you to Netgalley and Flatiron Books for the ARC.

Quite a dramatic WWII story of a desperate mother trying to keep herself and her daughter alive. The writing is excellent, it truly brings out the feelings and emotions the two felt. I read a lot of WWII books, but this one will be up toward the top of the list, it gives a different spin on the trials, tribulations and sacrifices this family had to go through.
I enjoyed the musical aspect and the ways they spent so many hours/days/weeks and months in hiding. The yellow bird was a special touch. This is not a lighthearted read, but it is filled with love, determination and hope. I highly recommend.
I was allowed an ARC from Flatiron Books and NetGalley for my honest unbiased review. This one gets 5 stars.

“The Yellow Bird Sings” by Jennifer Rosner is a beautiful story about the bond between and mother and daughter set against the horrific backdrop of World War II. After Nazis murder the rest of her family, Roza and her five-year-old daughter Shira must flee from their home and go into hiding. Roza and Shira are eventually separated and Shira is sent to a convent where she poses as a Christian child. At the convent, Shira has the opportunity to pursue the music that she loves-the music that keeps her connected to her past and that will give her a future.

This book is beautifully written, almost lyrical. The prose is as musical as the classical music that so influence Shira. Though this was a heartbreaking story, it was also a story filled with love, strength, and hope. Readers of World War II fiction will definitely enjoy this book. Though novels about the Holocaust seem to be all the rage today and there are hundreds to choose from, the beauty of the prose really sets this one apart from the rest. I was thoroughly captivated by Roza and Shira’s story.
Many thanks to NetGalley, Flatiron Books, and Jennifer Rosner for the privilege of reading an advanced digital copy of this lovely book.

Thank you to Flatiron Books / NetGalley for the digital copy and physical copy in exchange for an honest review!

Trigger warnings: Miscarriage, animal slaughter, rape, murder.

Story |
The reader follows a Jewish mother and daughter—Roza and Shira—in Poland during WWII. They hide in the loft of a farmer's barn, but Roza has to pay a disgusting price. Henryk, the farmer, comes up to the loft every night and takes advantage of Roza, even though he is already married to a woman named Krystyna. They are able to feed her daughter and that's all that matters. Shira is a musical prodigy, and that just might reveal their whereabouts, so Roza tells her stories about a yellow bird that can sing ANY song Shira can think of.
Eventually, Shira is taken away to a convent since Nazis are planning to use Henryk's barn. The convent renames her Zosia so nobody knows she's Jewish. Here is where she learns to play the violin. She can finally become that musical prodigy we all knew she'd become.
The scene where Roza and Shira separate almost made me cry in a Starbucks. Shira didn't understand why her mother was giving her away. She kept telling her that she will stay quiet from here on out. It will tear your heart out, stomp on it, and put it into a meat grinder until it turns into dust. I can't handle that type of stuff.
Meanwhile, Roza is forced to roam around the forest to hide from Nazis. When she runs into another mother and daughter, she begins to question if letting her daughter go was the right thing to do.
The ending is very bittersweet. It didn't end how I expected it to, but I was definitely satisfied with it.

Don't go into this expecting a war novel. It's the relationship between a mother and a daughter who are trying to escape from the horrors of WWII. It's life or death, and it's Roza's responsibility to decide what's best for her daughter. I thought the imaginary yellow bird was adorable, and it managed to help Shira/Zosia through many tough situations.

Characters |

There are quite a few side characters, but none of them really stick. This book truly is about the mother and daughter.

Roza is a trooper to say the least. There are so many smart yet devastating decisions she has to make throughout the novel. She is aware of her surroundings, and her only goal is to get back to her daughter. I'm sure there are reasons someone might not like her, but I would tell them to put themselves in her shoes. Would you rather save your daughter at ALL costs, or risk her dying in the forest because you couldn't provide enough food/water?

Shira/Zosia was interesting, but if I'm being honest, I didn't care for her parts of the novel as much. I loved that she was finally able to become that musical prodigy, but I have no interest/knowledge about that. She's tough and smart for a young girl during this time period. I don't have much to say about her.

Writing |
The writing style can be easily digested. Simple and straightforward. I liked that it wasn't convoluted, but I wish it had a little more "oomph". It did have its whimsical/lyrical moments that I absolutely loved. I can appreciate the writing is what I'm trying to say. It was able to tell a beautiful story.

Overall |
I would highly recommend this! It has its gritty, heartbreaking moments, but in the end, you won't be disappointed. The mother/daughter relationship is interesting to watch while under that kind of strain. There are moments that Roza breaks—she's not a robot. Shira just wants to be a kid. There is so much tension and fear that comes from these two characters, but there is also A LOT of love.
It's pretty incredible, and I'm telling you right now to read it when it comes out.

I'm participating in a blog tour for this, so here's my schedule for posts:

Giveaway announcement / Review on Instagram: 2/2/20.
Giveaway announcement on my blog: 2/2/20.
Review on my blog / Winner of giveaway: 3/4/20.

This was a great story and the theme and imagery of the yellow bird was truly very beautiful. Although I felt a bit detached reading it. I think a first person POV would have put much more emotion into the story. It is very difficult subject matter to read about, but in this case I didn't really feel like I felt the story or experienced it in anyway, just read it and had to imagine the emotion myself. But, in terms of WWII fiction I love a niche story and this is one of them. The imaginations of the two main characters move the story along in an almost surreal manner with the yellow bird providing comfort, the garden stories providing an escape and the music always providing hope.

This book certainly tugs at your heartstrings with its poignant tale of mother love. Roza's love for her daughter as they hide in a barn for over a year is gripping. Shira's escapes to a Catholic orphanage and then adoption to a Jewish family make up the rest of the story. Shira has to change her name twice to escape detection, bleach her hair, and try to eradicate the memory of her loving mother who helped orchestrate her escape. Shira's love of music and musical prodigy bring her back full circle to the mother she so loved. I would recommend this book.

The Yellow Bird Sings is a novel about mothers and daughters, love and loss, cruelty and kindness all against the background of Poland in 1941 through 1944 and then New York City in 1965.

The author has written a beautiful but heartbreaking novel that would resonate with most readers of WWII historical fiction, as a mother I really felt it’s heartaches and losses.

The novel opens with Roza along with her 5 year old daughter Shira hiding in a barn during the time that Nazi’s were everywhere. They have tortured and killed many Jewish people and Roza saw her parents murdered and lost her husband as he fought against the Germans. She fled to the countryside and has been hiding here for quite a while, it is the summer of 1941. Roza is determined to keep her daughter, Shira, safe at all costs.

Roza and Shira are forced to hide in the extremely tight space of the barn loft, burrowing into the hay at any noise heard. This is particularly hard for a 5 year old and especially for Shira who has music always in her heart and loves to sing. Roza’s grandfather made violins, she herself is a cellist and her husband a violinist. They had already suspected that Shira had a gift for music even at this early age.

To help Shira cope with the confines within the barn along with hunger, heat and then cold, she imagines a small yellow bird which she holds in her hands. She takes care of her imaginary pet, silently sings to it and imagines where they will one day go. Roza encourages this mind play as it seems to help calm her daughter.

The man who owns the barn has let them stay but he has other motives besides kindness driving his decision. He occasionally brings them food and then later his wife begins to feel sorry for the little girl. She takes her out for short walks in the farmyard and lets her pet the cows, she brings food for them but Roza insists that Shira eat most of it.

At a later point in the story it is no longer safe to stay in the barn as the Nazi’s have been burning down the barns of any farmer known to be helping or hiding Jews in any way. She makes a decision that she will question for the rest of her life. She allows Shira to be taken to a convent and she herself makes her way in the countryside.While she knows that Shira will have music in her life “The mother, too, hears music in her head. The melody is discordant and accusatory. When she covers her ears with her hands, a different tune asserts itself, more painful for its sweet, rocking lyricism. The lullaby tells of a hen who sets out for glasses of tea to bring to her waiting chicks. It is the girl’s favorite, and it is accompanied by the lilt of a kept promise. The hen returns.”

As in most stories of this terrible time we are reminded of the conditions that the hideouts in the countryside faced, starvation, cold, constant moving, isolation, etc. Shira, though kept safe, has huge adjustments to make while living as a hide out in the Catholic convent, all is not easy for her.

This novel is well written and flows well. I found the use of expressive imagery in the form of the little yellow bird both heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. I think any readers of WWII historical fiction will want to read this book, the characters are very well described and I felt very connected to them.

I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley. It is set to publish March 3, 2020.

The Yellow Bird Sings is a poignant novel. Set in Poland during WWII, its about a mother and small daughter forced to hide in a barn. The daughter must remain silent for long hours and ignore the sounds that come from the hayloft that involve her mother. Eventually the two are separated and the story is consumed with their separate experiences. I thought the writing was beautiful until the ending. I felt the ending was incomplete. The reader deserved the reunion that the previous chapters called out for.

What a beautiful, thoughtful and eloquent perspective on the ugly and monstrous history of the Holocaust. Jennifer Rosner has so much feeling and pain in her words, conveying the thoughts of little 5-year old Shira in a manner that’s so believable and consuming. Shira has an imaginary pet bird, one she believes in to the degree that if the bird is lost, it must be found before Shira can calm down. She creates this comforting pet while living in the attic of a barn with her mother after they escaped capture by the Nazis. They can’t stand up and walk around, talk, laugh, enjoy the sunshine, breathe the fresh air without the threat of being discovered and turned in by neighbors, two lives in exchange for a bag of sugar.
The man of the house has his own greedy ulterior motives for allowing the family to hide in his barn. The woman of the house turns a blind eye, but in time begins to love Shira. As the days and months drag by, the threat of capture and certain death increases.
Roza, Shira’s mother, must make a heartrending decision in hopes that at least her daughter will survive. What follows for them each is a story of hope, survival, and the continually nagging question of “what if”. For anyone interested in historical fiction based on WW II and the plight of the Jews, this is a must-read. It will stick with you long after you finish.
(I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you to Flatiron and NetGalley for making it available.)

After hiding in a hayloft in Poland for more than a year during The early years of WWII, Roza entrusts her young daughter Shira to the nuns of a convent. The Yellow Bird Sings is a beautifully written book about longing, the longing of mother and child for one another, the longing for love, and the longing expressed through music. I have read many books of this same general plot ...people who love one another who are separated by war and who go through extraordinary hardships and to extraordinary lengths to survive and reunite. The Yellow Bird Sings ranks among the best of them, Brava

I loved that music played such an integral part in this novel. I wish I could use musical terms to express the flow of this story. It started off slow and built as it went along. By the end I could really feel how this story could be translated into a musical piece.

‘ Only in this music, wistful and defiant, can she find something of her own without giving herself away. Find her family, her home.’

The Yellow Bird Sings by Jennifer Rosner is a poignant and haunting story of love and survival during WWII Poland. With her parents arrested and her husband murdered at the hands of the Nazi’s, Roza flees her home with her five year old daughter Shira. They manage to take shelter in a near-by barn where Roza and her daughter seek temporary shelter until she can devise a plan of escape.

Though the farmer Henryk and his wife Krystyna offer shelter for several months, it is not without cost to Roza. And though they are safe for now, their fate is still precarious. For little Shira keeping still and quiet in a barn loft is difficult. She longs to be a five year old child, to run and play, but with the possibility of being found Roza must devise ways to entertain her daughter to keep her silent. She invents a charming story of a garden where a little yellow bird sings the songs Shira longs to hear. Shira keeps this little bird with her most especially in times of danger, as when the soldiers are patrolling and the neighbors lurking about, but when Roza learns the Nazi’s have decided to requisition the barn for use, she has no choice but to flee. When Krystyna offers an opportunity for Shira to escape to a convent of sisters who are caring for orphan children, Roza is not sure she can let her daughter go. But as the time draws near to leave, Roza knows this plan may be Shira’s only hope of survival.

The Yellow Bird Sings was painfully beautiful. The characters that Jennifer Rosner created were so heartfelt, from Roza and Shira, to the sisters that took care of the orphans, to the survivors in the woods that cared for one another, all fall together to form an emotional read. At times the story was so engrossing that I lost all track of time. It was a wonderful way to pass the hours.

So,if you love historical fiction, especially survival stories centering around WWll and looking for a new read, I promise you will love The Yellow Bird Sings. I want to thank the publisher Flatiron Books and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book The Yellow Bird Sings by Jennifer Rosner. “Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.”

Jennifer Rosner's The Yellow Bird Sings is both beautiful and heartbreaking. The beauty comes from Rosner's skill as a writer. She has a knack for finding the precise word or phrase to evoke a specific feeling, and she allows us to clearly see the interior lives of characters as well as their actions. The heartbreak comes from the books subject—a Jewish mother (Roza) and daughter (Shira) hiding from the Germans in occupied Poland.

They come from a musical family. Roza's father was a violin maker, her husband a violinist, and Roza is a cellist. Shira, age five at the novel's start, has not begun any sort of musical training, but is alive with music: remembered music, compositions she constructs in her head, and the music of an imaginary yellow bird who has kept her company since her father and grandparents were killed and she and her mother went into hiding.

While this is a heart-breaking read, it is also a worthwhile one that speaks to issues of survival and how both love and music can aid that survival. It's one of the books of 2020 that deserves readers—lots of readers—and that can teach us about ourselves and our own time through the story set in another era.