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Satisfying and sweet…. Love, empathy and fear―as well as a yellow songbird―wind through this tale of an unbreakable bond between mother and child. The novel demonstrates Ms. Rosner’s deep understanding of the terrors of the Holocaust.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


Jennifer Rosner hooks readers from the onset…. Readers will have empathy for Roza and Shira, and admire Roza’s courage and persistence as she faces life without her daughter, releasing her to save her, like a bird freed from a cage.
Missourian


A study of music, imagination and the power of a mother’s love.
Parade


[M]oving if unsurprising…. Rosner switches between points of view to craft a wrenching chronicle of their separate journeys, though the conclusion suffers from schmaltz. This will offer few surprises to avid readers of Holocaust fiction.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review) Memoirist and award-winning children's author Rosner challenges the Holocaust with a touch of magic (the yellow bird appears throughout), clarifying a dangerous time and place even as she offers a vibrant, affecting portrait of the mother-daughter relationship.
Library Journal


This stunning debut novel sings with the power of a mother’s love and the heartbreaking risks she’ll endure.
Booklist


[A] Room-like twist, one that also deftly examines the ways in which art and imagination can sustain us…. [This] is impressive. A mother and her child-prodigy daughter struggle to survive the Holocaust by telling stories and remembering the power of music.
Kirkus Review


(Starred review) This stunning debut novel sings with the power of a mother’s love and the heartbreaking risks she’ll endure.
BookPage