WHITE BIRD
AUTHOR:
R.J Palacio
GENRE:
Historical Fiction
AGE:
13+
RATING:
3/5 Stars
REVIEW:
All her life, Sara Blum has lived in rainbows and flowers with a picture of perfect life in her mind. She spent her time hanging out with friends, going to school, playing the piano and drawing. But then one day that perfect picture of a perfect life slowly fades away. There are German flags going up and signs on shops saying, no jews allowed. The Nazi’s come to her school and she has to hide. But then kindness comes when a boy in her grade, Julien, smuggles her out of the school and brings her to his family barn and keeps her hidden from the Nazis.
Sara has to learn how to live in hiding in Nazi-ocuppied french village. But living in a barn is as bad as she thought at first. The person she used to think very lowly of becomes her best friend, but living without knowing where your parents are not knowing if they’re even alive is hard.
I thought White Bird was a super sweet and emotional story. There were many parts where I cried and parts I laughed and smiled. It was a super emotional book. I mean, it’s world war two and the Holocaust. So it is very depressing.
I loved it and loved the characters. It was hard to put the book down but when i finished it i felt sad and just down. It didn’t have much hope and was not christian so it wasn’t my favorite. But overall it was a great story full of kindness and bravery and courage.
WARNINGS:
Holocaust // One bad word // Death // Romance tension
TAKEAWAYS:
Sara had never been nice to Julien in school because he had polio and his dad worked in the sewers so everyone thought he smelled gross. All the boys made fun of him, and nobody even knew his real name., but Julien’s family showed kindness to Sara when she hadn’t. They didn’t even really know her and they rescued her anyway when they could be executed for it. That, I thought, was a really good thing that we could learn from.
The Blurb
A Wonder story
In R. J. Palacio's bestselling collection of stories, Auggie & Me, which expands on characters in Wonder, readers were introduced to Julian's grandmother, Grandmère. Here, Palacio makes her graphic novel debut with Grandmère's heartrending how she, a young Jewish girl, was hidden by a family in a Nazi-occupied French village during World War II; how the boy she and her classmates once shunned became her savior and best friend.
Grandmère's harrowing experience movingly demonstrates the power of kindness to change hearts, build bridges, and even save lives. As Grandmère tells Julian, "It always takes courage to be kind, but in those days, such kindness could cost you everything." With poignant symbolism and gorgeous artwork that brings Grandmère's story out of the past and cements it firmly in this moment in history, White Bird is sure to captivate anyone who was moved by Wonder.
About the Author
R.J. Palacio lives in NYC with her husband, two sons, and two dogs. For more than twenty years, she was an art director and graphic designer, designing book jackets for other people while waiting for the perfect time in her life to start writing her own novel. But one day several years ago, a chance encounter with an extraordinary child in front of an ice cream store made R. J. realize that the perfect time to write that novel had finally come. Wonder is her first novel. She did not design the cover, but she sure does love it.
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