Track of a Blackbird connects two generations of an Amsterdam household by the story of the Dutch Resistance throughout World Struggle II.

Track of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout. First Second, 2025, 249 pages.

Studying Stage: Center Grades, ages 10-12

Really useful for: ages 10-18

The blackbird is our narrator. “Fly with me as I sail between time and place, and you will notice that heeding my music could be a matter of life or dying.” The occasions shift between wartime years and the current, however the pivotal place is Amsterdam. In 2011 Annick, who seems to be in her late teenagers or early twenties, resides with the grandmother who has raised her since her dad and mom died younger. Oma has been recognized with leukemia and desperately wants a bone-marrow transplant—however, surprisingly, Annick shouldn’t be a match and neither are Oma’s two siblings. In reality, these siblings will not be biologically associated in any respect! Oma was adopted too younger to recollect organic dad and mom. Her earliest reminiscence is a traumatic one: of a bomb dropping on her home through the battle. However what occurred after that? The blackbird is aware of.

The motion shifts between Annick’s investigations in 2011 and the story of the Dutch Resistance in 1943. Emma Bergsma, a younger scholar, is shaken to find that the Nationwide Dutch Theater has grow to be a holding place for Jews scheduled for “deportation”—truly, dying camps. Emma helps to put a 4-year-old lady with a Gentile household, however they received’t take her brother, who “appears too Jewish.” Emma’s first problem is someway getting the boy to security however as she’s drawn into the broader Resistance she turns into an adjunct to bolder plans, even a brazen swap of cast bonds for actual ones, which permits the Resistance to finance their actions. Readers will guess how Annick’s Oma matches into Emma’s story, however the decision might not be what they count on.

The distinctive graphic-novel format incorporates pictures and clippings into black-and-white paintings (with touches of crimson). Readers catch on shortly that the blackbird’s narration is white letters on black, whereas dialogue amongst characters is black on white. The writer/illustrator fashions her fictional characters on historic resistance fighters, lots of them artists and performers. The facility of artwork to beat evil is a serious theme, although it’s not clear that “artwork” possesses an ethical core sturdy sufficient to withstand (and is commonly used to assist propaganda). That may be some extent price speaking about. The church receives its due within the particular person of Father Timothy, who courageously shelters Jewish kids till they will get to security.

Backside Line: A robust and affecting story of preventing evil throughout World Struggle II.

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