The Wren and the Sparrow by Lewis J. Patrick (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Wren and the Sparrow by Lewis J. Patrick Amy Atkinson Lewis, J. Patrick The Wren and the Sparrow; illus. by Yevgenia Nayberg. Kar-Ben, 2015 [32p] ISBN 978-1-4677-1951-3 $17.95 Reviewed from galleys R 7-10 yrs In the dark days of the Holocaust, the Jews of an unnamed Polish hamlet must surrender their musical instruments to the Nazis. Accompanied by his devoted student, a girl known as the Sparrow, the elderly Wren brings his hurdy-gurdy to the town square. There he leads the villagers in song—an act of protest that gets him killed and inspires the Sparrow to steal back the instrument and hide it, along with a note telling its story, in her building, where it is found years later by our [End Page 503] narrator, one of the few children to survive the Holocaust. He faithfully brings the hurdy-gurdy with him on his journey to the United States and now, as an old man, will pass along this “precious token from a dark time” to his great-grandchildren. This fable has a lyrical style, with plenty of striking similes (“The town shriveled up like a rose without rain”) fitting from Lewis, a U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate. The gorgeous illustrations echo Chagall in their angles and ethereality; working with a mostly somber palette contrasted by splashes of vermilion and cobalt, Nayberg conveys light against darkness, hope against despair. Together, prose and pictures imply much about pain and suffering without becoming too graphic for the audience. Whether children sencounter this book independently or through its multiple potential curriculum connections, they will benefit from discussion of the complex content; to that end, a thoughtful afterword describes Poland’s Lodz Ghetto—the inspiration for this tale—and the role of music in the lives of Jews during World War II. This lyrical story of bravery in a horrific time asks a lot from its readers in way of vocabulary, figurative thinking, and appreciation of subtlety, but offers much in return. Copyright © 2015 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois