This has been a tough graphic novel to read, but it is well worth it. You go along with the main character and her family as they survive the Holocaust. The tale makes you rethink about how people lived through such a thing. This would be a good addition to a middle grades classroom library.

Part of Estelle's mission, adopting her Americanized name, is to ensure that her own narrative, alongside the stories of countless others, remains ingrained in memory.

This graphic novel stands as a poignant testament to the harrowing experience of survival and profound loss.

The use of a child's perspective lends an added layer of emotional depth, intensifying the impact of the narrative. The vivid illustrations in this animated book effectively capture the profound emotions reflected in Estelle's eyes.

It's not until the final scenes that the full significance of the book's title truly resonates, making the wait well worth it.

Furthermore, the inclusion of images and diagrams in the afterword serves to transform the story into a deeply heartbreaking reality, underscoring the tragic experiences endured by countless families, including Estelle's, during this dark period of history for no justifiable reason.

What a wonderful graphic novel! I highly recommend this beautiful read. It's extremely heartfelt and well written and so very moving.

Thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Roaring Brook Press, and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As there are very few Holocaust survivors left still living today, narratives like this become more important. The graphic novel format makes Enia’s story accessible to all sorts of readers. I want to make sure my students and children read not just historical fiction about the Holocaust but true accounts to really understand the magnitude of what happened.

I highly recommend this book. Accessible history is so important in getting our younger generation the knowledge they need to become well informed adults, and this novel with amazing art is such an engaging way to do just that. I also love that the before and after are included in this novel. In the before we really get a peek into what it means to be Jewish which is so important because I believe most people don’t know much of anything about what it means to be Jewish. This really helps holocaust survivors become more three-dimensional in the eyes of readers. I also appreciate the after. While history does not need to be sugar coated or have a happy ending, it is awesome to celebrate this life and highlight the resilience of the people involved. This book is so important.

This graphic novel brought me to tears. I found that it was a powerful read and I highly recommend this read for anyone and everyone. This book will definitely be bought for circulation purposes at my library.

This was an amazing graphic memoir about Estelle's story surviving the Holocaust. I think this is one of those beautiful tellings that should be taught in school and handed to every human. I am happy to now know Estelle's story and I believe this one will go far on educating so many who need to be educated in this day and age.

I can’t imagine being just five years old when Germany invades your country. Hitler invaded Poland on on September 1, 1939. Enia is living a happy and carefree life in the small town of Borek, with her father, mother and oldest siblings, brother Moishe and sister Sonjia. After the invasion, they are forced to work in a refinery, leaving the family's fields untended. Jews were forced to wear the Star of David in public, and their homes were ransacked by Nazis, who stole anything of value.

One day, the Gestapo surrounds the refinery and separates the workers into two groups, Sonjia slipped home just long enough to warn her mother and younger siblings to run. Enia never saw her or Reuven and Moishe again. She later learned they were selected for the right line, taken by train to Auschwitz, where they were murdered upon arrival. What remained of the family took refuge in the attic of a friendly villager they knew only as Pudlina. Pudlina, like most of the villagers, was poor, so, to feed her family, mom ventured out several nights a week in search of food. One night, she did not return, leaving Enia and her remaining brothers, orphans.

THE GIRL WHO SANG: A HOLOCAUST MEMOIR OF HOPE AND SURVIVAL is part of Estelle, her Americanised name’s, effort to ensure that her story, and the stories of millions like her, are not forgotten. This is a heartbreaking memoir of survival and loss. The fact that the story is told through a child's eyes makes it that much more poignant. You can see such expression in her eyes depicted in this lively graphic novel.
Until I reached the end of the book, the title didn’t seem to fit, The significance of the book's title doesn't really hit home until the final scenes, but it's worth the wait.

Pictures and diagrams in the afterward make this story become a truly heartbreaking reality for just one family out of millions who were treated so brutally for absolutely no good reason.

Based on the life of Estelle Nadel, The Girl Who Sang is a story of survival and hope when all looks lost. The story follows Nadel as a child in Poland through WW II and the Nazi invasion. Overall, I found this book to be inspiring and appreciated the pictures and stories about the siblings in the back.

This is a story that won’t leave me for a very long time, if not forever. As a Jewish person, this graphic novel is heartbreaking yet beautiful, and shows how resilient even a child sometimes has to be in the face of adversity and hate. The art style is lovely. I read through this so quickly cause I had to know the ending to Estelle’s story.

The Girl Who Sang is a wonderful recreation of Enia's story as a Holocaust survivor. Enia is young when the Germans invaded Poland and she is forced into hiding. However, the graphic novel continues to tell her story all the way through her life. A great addition to a school library for older readers. Pictures accompanying the text were thoughtfully planned out but can be graphic for young readers.

I loved it! The drawings were nice and fit into the story. I love that we got an update on everyone, as most stories end when the Jewish people are liberated and we don’t often get to see an in depth look on life afterwards. It’s been a while since I’ve read a graphic novel that made me feel something, and loved all the historical facts that come along. I can’t really think of any cons, but I really enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone who likes to read and learn about Jewish people and the Holocaust.

This was a quick read. I definitely will have it added to the school library. I only wish the title had more connection to the story.

The Girl Who Sang is a beautiful, yet heart wrenching graphic memoir written by a Holocaust survivor. Even though it includes some difficult scenes and illustrations, it is a wonderful resource for older children to understand the Jewish traditions and the horrors that they had to endure. Highly recommend!

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through NetGalley. Content warning for antisemitism, including antisemetic violence, murder, and genocide.)

Enia Feld was not quite five years old when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Conditions would gradually deteriorate over the next several years, both in Enia's small town of Borek, and across Europe. Her father Reuven and oldest siblings - brother Moishe and sister Sonjia - were conscripted to work in a refinery, leaving the family's fields untended. Jews were forced to wear the Star of David in public, and their homes were ransacked by Nazis, who stole anything of value.

When the Gestapo surrounded the refinery and started separating the workers into two groups, Sonjia slipped home just long enough to warn her mother and younger siblings to run. Enia never saw her - or Reuven and Moishe - again; they later learned that those prisoners in the right line, including Reuven and Sonjia, were taken by train to Auschwitz, where they were murdered upon arrival. The Felds took refuge in the attic of a friendly villager they knew only as Pudlina, while the Reiss family - Enia's aunt, uncle, and cousin - hid in the attic of another neighboring family, the Kurowskas. Pudlina, like most of the villagers, was poor - so, to feed her family, mom Chaya ventured out several nights a week in search of food. One night, she did not return, leaving Enia and her remaining brothers, Shia and Minashe, orphans.

Minashe eventually goes off on his own, hoping to pass as a gentile, while Enia and Shia are forced to move in with their relatives at the Kurowskas' - thanks to one of Pudlina's hostile neighbors, and after narrowly escaping death in the same jail their mother perished in. After several years in hiding - and just as Enia and her family were about to undertake a risky relocation due to a leaky roof - the Soviet army won control of Borek. Enia had to be carried out of the Kurowskas's attic, her legs atrophied from years of inactivity.

The Felds' troubles were far from over, however: after the Russian forces withdrew, gangs of Polish teens started harassing and even assaulting their Jewish neighbors. Enia, Shia, and Minashe left Borek, hoping to make it to Palestine; instead, they were able to take a train as far as Budapest. From there, they paid a smuggler to get them into Austria, where they settled in the Displaced Persons Camp, controlled by American Allied Forces. After hearing her sing, a Black American soldier suggested to Enia that she consider applying for relocation to America. Several fraudulent x-rays later, Enia and Shia arrived in Ellis Island, where they were met by Minashe, who had traveled ahead.

Against all odds, the siblings managed to stick together - or reunite - throughout the war. However, it soon became apparent that Shia and Minashe couldn't care for Enia - now named Estelle - and she was adopted by an American couple, Minnie and Nienman Nadel. When Estelle was sixteen, Minnie - now widowed - moved the family to California, where Estelle spent the next forty-three years, marrying and starting a family of her own. She stayed in touch with Shia and Minashe - now Steve and Mel; along with extended family, eventually they traveled back to Poland to visit their home. Inspired by her daughter-in-law Hester, Estelle decided to share her story with high school and college students around the country.

THE GIRL WHO SANG: A HOLOCAUST MEMOIR OF HOPE AND SURVIVAL is part of Estelle's effort to ensure that her story - and the stories of millions like her - lives on, even after she's gone. It's a heartbreaking memoir of survival and loss; that the story is told through a child's eyes makes it that much more poignant. The artwork has a sort of soft, childlike, innocent quality to it, which really underscores some of the more violent and brutal scenes, such as Chaya's assassination in a Polish jail. Certain scenes are sure to stay with me forever, such as when Estelle's cousin Mala points out that they can see both their houses from their hiding place in the Kurowskas' attic.

Perhaps the most affecting part - besides the siblings' ultimate, post-war separation, despite all that they'd overcome - is the repeated kindness of strangers, presented in a matter-of-fact manner despite the bravery and risk these acts entailed. From the four Polish gentiles who hid Enia and several of her relatives for years, to the Polish warden who deliberately placed Enia and Shia in a basement jail cell so that they might escape out the ground floor window, the ability for everyday people to engage in acts of heroism never ceases to awe me.

If anything, this juxtaposition underscores the more everyday senseless acts of cruelty, such as the Polish teens who betrayed Chaya for a bounty, and the neighbors who reported Pudlina.

One unexpected motif is the surprise of small coincidences, with consequences both good and bad. The significance of the book's title doesn't really hit home until the final scenes, but it's worth the wait.

Beautiful amazing gorgeous


Thank you soooooo much netgalley, the author and the publisher for the advanced review copy if this book💗
"I voluntarily read and reviewed the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

The graphic memoir, <i>The Girl Who Sang</i> vividly recounts young Enia and her family's fight to survive in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. 

As living becomes increasingly dangerous for Jews, Enia is the girl who is forbidden from singing as to not draw attention to her family. This, along with a myriad of injustices her family suffers, smacks the faces of readers and sobers them to the true, brutal realities of the Holocaust.

Nadel’s words and Sammy Savos’ illustrations pair well and make the graphic memoir a fast, emotional, informative, and unforgettable read. <i> The Girl Who Sang </i> should be read by many; this reader thinks it is appropriate for children beginning in late elementary school/early middle school.

My thanks to Roaring Books Press and Net Galley for graciously providing me an advance readers copy for review.

Wow..this was a truly beautiful but heartbreaking story. We really do need to make sure the stories of the Holocaust survivors are not lost. This book is a reminder that they need to be passed down. Mrs. Estelle Nadel is very resilient and I cried many times. I also loved how her brother Steve was always there for her.. this time in history was a very emotional and sensitive time in history for Jews as well as traumatizing. No amount of apologizing will ever be able to undo that and I am truly, deeply sorry that this happened.

The pictures were very nicely illustrated and I was really impressed that it was all done on clip studio too!!

I loved this story but I was just a little confused on the ending.

Reviewed for NetGalley:

Honest review from my 10 year old daughter:

This was a heavy subject graphic novel, but well done.

Beautiful illustrations, story, and over really memorable.

Quite the emotional read given that this is a biography/memoir. The graphic novel format works for this because it allows a lot of time to be covered quickly and does not need to get too detailed in order to depict the atrocities and the horror of the war. I realize that the Holocaust and WWII meant many Jewish families died and were separated from each other. I just really hoped that some of the folks in this story actually made it through, but without too many spoilers, a lot do not and that is really heartbreaking. I appreciated that the end of the book included a quick recap of where all the survivors were and what they went on to do, and I definitely agreed with the statement that these types of memoirs are eventually going to be the only way that people remember what happened. Because at some point, those who lived it will all be gone.

The artwork was nice, although a bit loose in terms of structure for my taste especially as some of the characters looked so much alike that I had a hard time distinguishing. And at one point, I lost track of the names too. But I think that may have more to do with my memory than with the book itself. The story was told through the eyes of a child, and I think that some of that made the story even more moving because she lived it and had so much of her youth taken away.

All in all, I consider this an excellent graphic novel memoir especially in how it handles WWII from a Jewish perspective. I would not recommend it for younger readers though as it's a bit too much for someone in middle school even in my opinion.