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Nicole Hadley (380 KP) rated The Sound of Freedom in Books

Jun 18, 2018  
TS
The Sound of Freedom
Kathy Kacer | 2018
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Sound of Freedom by Kathy Kacer is a middle-grade novel about a Jewish family in Krakow, Poland in 1936. Life has become increasingly dangerous, as the violence and persecution of Jews increase. Anna is afraid if they don’t escape soon, something really bad will happen. Her father is a talented clarinetist in the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra. They hear that Bronislaw Huberman is auditioning Jewish musicians from all over Europe for a new orchestra in Palestine. If her father auditions and is accepted, she and her grandmother can leave Poland with her father for a new life in Palestine. 

Stories of Jews in the Holocaust have fascinated me since I was a kid. The first book about the Holocaust I read was Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, then later A Diary of Anne Frank, and many more.  My interest in the Holocaust is why I requested a copy of this book from NetGalley.

The Sound of Freedom is an introduction to the beginning of the Holocaust for middle-grade students. The story is told through the eyes of Anna, focusing on the growing anti-Semitism she sees going on around her and that eventually happens to her. It is set in 1936, before Germany’s invasion of Poland and as Hitler is rising in power, so the real horrors of the Holocaust have not yet started.

While the story of Anna’s family is fiction, Bronislaw Huberman really was a world-renown violinist and did create the Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra to save over a thousand Jews by recruiting them for the newly formed orchestra. Anna’s story is representative of the lives saved by Bronislaw Huberman.

While the story is for middle-grade student, it tells the harsh reality of the what was happening.  Readers will be faced with the problems and issues of the era. Some of the families leave the orchestra to go back to their homeland, and Anna is concerned for their safety and the reader is left to wonder what happened to them. The story also mentions the tensions between the Arabs and the Jewish peoples in Palestine. Anna's family may have escaped Poland, but they are faced with issues in Palestine.

I give the story 4.5 stars. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in the time-period. The Sound of Freedom would make an excellent addition to a Holocaust study.

I received an Advanced Readers Copy from Annick Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
  
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Nicole L (3 KP) rated The Nightingale in Books

Jul 6, 2017  
The Nightingale
The Nightingale
Kristin Hannah | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
9
8.9 (61 Ratings)
Book Rating
Plot (2 more)
Characterization
Pacing
Book I recommend to everyone
I've read extensively about WW2 and the Holocaust, both fiction and nonfiction. This is the #1 book I recommend for others interested in those subjects and honestly my top fiction recommendation overall. Great characterization, good pacing, and a tense plot jeep the pages turning. Have tissues handy - I'm not a big crier but this one definitely got to me!
  
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Domonique (0 KP) rated The Diary of a Young Girl in Books

May 12, 2018  
The Diary of a Young Girl
The Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank, Mirjam Pressler, Otto Frank | 2012 | Biography
10
8.2 (52 Ratings)
Book Rating
I truly enjoyed this story and was glad it was a story that got told. I remember reading it in high school, and I think we had just finished discussing The Holocaust history so everything was fresh in my mind. I liked that we got a different point of view for this type of story and that it was told from a young girl's perspective.