A Sky Full of Song

(Paperback)

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Description

This heartwarming, beautifully written middle-grade historicalnovel about an untold American frontier story is destined to be a cherished classic.

North Dakota, 1905

After fleeing persecution in the Russian Empire, eleven-year-old Shoshana and her family, Jewish immigrants, start a new life on the prairie. Shoshana takes fierce joy in the wild beauty of the plains and the thrill of forging a new, American identity. But its not as simple for her older sister, Libke, who misses their Ukrainian village and doesnt pick up English as quickly or make new friends as easily. Desperate to fit in, Shoshana finds herself hiding her Jewish identity in the face of prejudice, just as Libke insists they preserve it.

For the first time, Shoshana is at odds with her beloved sister, and has to look deep inside herself to realize that her familys difference is their greatest strength. By listening to the music thats lived in her heart all along, Shoshana finds new meaning in the Jewish expression all beginnings are difficult, as well as in the resilience and traditions her people have brought all the way to the North Dakota prairie.

Reviews

"Frequent parallels to the Little House series accentuate how different Shoshana's experience is from the White, Christian, mythically American lives of her classmates . . . . A moving, gently kind coming-to-America story. A lesser-known Jewish American history offers a plainspoken message about assimilation and self-love." --Kirkus Reviews

"Meyer layers richly detailed depictions of Jewish traditions, stunning descriptions of the landscape, and a highly sympathetic narrator to convey an underreported historical arc." --Publishers Weekly

"This character-driven storyline shines in descriptive passages . . . . A Sky Full of Song is a thoughtful piece of middle-grade historical fiction featuring a sympathetic protagonist from an underrepresented community." --Shelf Awareness

"A different kind of prairie story has arisen, one that seeks in some manner to correct the past." --The Wall Street Journal

"[A] beautifully written novel that also touches on the forced removal of Native Americans." --Book Riot

Author Bio

Susan Lynn Meyer is the author of two previous middle-grade historical novels--Black Radishes, a Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner, and Skating with the Statue of Liberty--as well as three picture books. Her works have won the Jane Addams Peace Association Children's Book Award and the New York State Charlotte Award, as well as many other honors. Her novels have been chosen as Junior Library Guild and PJ Our Way selections, included among Bank Street College of Education's Best Children's Books of the Year, and translated into German and Chinese. She is Professor of English and Creative Writing at Wellesley College and lives outside Boston.