Release Date: November 1, 2016

Esfir Manevich is a seven year old Jewish girl who lives in Poland in 1936.  The seeds for World War 2 have been planted and acts of anti-Semitism are on the rise in her community.  Esfir watches these acts increase at her public school while the administrators turn a blind eye. Fearing for her future, Esfir’s parents send her to live with her Aunt Pearl who runs a boarding house in another city in Poland.

As Esfir approaches adulthood, she witnesses riots on the streets and more changes in the political climate. She also sees the underground Zionist movement and watches her brother leave for Palestine.  Her environment undergoes drastic changes when Poland becomes a battleground for German and Russian occupation. Eventually, Esfir and her family are forced to live in a ghetto where they learn to survive and their future appears bleak. In 1942, their ghetto is liquidated and Esfir and her family face the next set of horrors.

This novel by Andrea Simon is based on the true story of Esfir Manevich which was a 2016 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award Finalist. The story is narrated by Esfir and depicts a young girl’s view of a tumultuous time in our history.