Wow. I was not expecting a graphic novel to make me cry as much as The Girl Who Sang did. This book follows Estelle as her family sees the beginning of the Nazi occupation of Poland all the way through to her beginnings in the new world of the United States and how she deals with the trauma and grief that comes with surviving such a horrific trauma as the Holocaust. Estelle takes us through the real-life journey of hiding during the years of World War Two in Nazi occupied Poland and how she deals with the constant loss of love, innocence, and safety. Major content warnings for this book: violence, anti-semitism, murder, language, and the Holocaust.

Beautiful and heartbreaking story. Not too graphic in pictures so could and will be used in curriculum and in classroom library.

Nicely illustrated graphic novel. One girl's childhood of being able to sing again after spending years in hiding during occupied Poland. Clean content. Recommended for children ten and up.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the chance to preview this book!

Wow what a beautiful read. This graphic novel is a must read for anyone curious about the Holocaust and how it affected families in Poland. These illustrations are amazing and really capture what happened, without being too graphic for a middle grader to read.
I loved all the notes in the end from Estelle, who is a survivor of the Holocaust.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

The Girl Who Sang is a moving graphic novel by Estelle Nadel that chronicles her experiences during the Holocaust. As a Jewish girl, Estelle had to fight for her survival. She also had to endure many hardships and grieve for family members. In the face of danger and uncertainty, this is also a story about sacrifice, overcoming obstacles, bravery, and the kindness others show. The illustrations complimented the text beautifully. Readers will devour this text and talk about the themes.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

What a moving story! Seeing the holocaust through the eyes of a child is always a sobering experience.

This graphic novel does a great job of making the story of Estelle accessible to a younger audience without underplaying the true horror of this dark period of history.

The story is very well told and the notes at the end were particularly interesting. It even includes photos of some of the people in the story! I highly recommend reading this graphic novel.

Teaching students about the Holocaust and how it effected children their same age is a multi-faceted and at times daunting task, The Girl Who Sang is a heart wrenching story that young readers are able to relate to, especially given the graphic novel format which is currently so popular with children.

First person narratives are the best way to experience what the person went through. Unfortunately, the voices of those that experienced the Holocaust are not in their 90s on up, and we are losing them.

In this graphic novel, we see the story of Estelle, who was only 4 years old when the war started in 1939, and Poland, where she lived, was invaded. Her father, who was quite devote kept saying not to worry, that god would provide, and that they were such a small village, surely the Germans would leave them alone. Spoiler alert, they did not.

They survived by hiding in houses of non-Jews, although not all her family survived. Her mother, who would go out searching for food at night, lost her life because she was turned in. Because they were in hiding, Estelle could not sing, and that was the one thing she missed the whole time they were in hiding. As soon as they were liberated, she went back to singing again.

The story doesn’t end with the liberation, but tells also what happened afterwards, coming to America, and learning English by watching movies every day, while her brothers were at work.

It is a sad, sweet story, and one that is important to know about. There are more stories out there, and it is good that this one has been added to that library of stories.

Easy to understand story, told from Estelle’s point of view, and beautiful illustrations.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is going to be published on the 6th of February 2024.

A great team brought to live Enia Feld's (Estelle Nadel's) memoir. From her years of innocence in Poland, we see Enia with her family on a farm and she is only seven years old when Hitler's troops arrive. It's told through her eyes and the illustrator has done amazing work in portraying the horrors and cruelty of what happened to Enia's family and neighbors one by one. We go through the years and different chapters, and we learn the details and politics of this war, but we're still seeing through the eyes of Enia, and all the time that she waited in hiding before going to America with the survivors.
The hardship didn't end there, but she survived.
It's emotional, heartbreaking, and educational. Provides much to be explored and discussed at different levels.
With the same emotional strength as Grave of the Fireflies. For fans of Anne Frank's Diary and graphic novels such as Maus.
I appreciate the last pages where we can see some of the behind-the-scenes of the making of this graphic novel.
Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for this eARC.

A great story showing the horrors of World War 2 that Jewish families faced but also showing the great courage of the Jewish people. While many stories of families who survived the horrors of the war tend to stop at liberation, I especially was moved that this story continued long after the war. Many times we do not realize how the war had long-term impacts on the lives of those who survived, but "The Girl Who Sand" beautifully depicts how the lives of the three siblings were forever changed by the effects of war.