Someday We Will Fly

With pathos and a fine eye for historical detail, DeWoskin (Blind) relates the story of Shanghai’s Jewish refugees during WWII, when Shanghai was under Japanese occupation. In May 1940, two days before their scheduled escape from Warsaw, 15-year-old Lillia’s mother disappears, and Lillia, her father, and her malnourished 18-month-old sister Naomi, must flee Poland without her. Lillia, who has inherited her circus performer parents’ agility and love for storytelling, finds solace making puppets from scavenged materials. Realizing that her family’s survival depends in part on her, she discovers the lengths she will go to save them from starvation and illness, including selling her hair, pawning her mother’s gold ring, and dancing in a club for wealthy Japanese men, all the while wondering if she’ll ever see her mother again. Lillia’s first-person narrative details occupied Shanghai extensively, from her initial impression of the city as “an electric mob of running, waving, shouting” to the ever-present Japanese soldiers. DeWoskin captures the crushing destruction of war and occupation, the unfathomable resilience communities can muster through cross-cultural friendships and acts of kindness, andthe power of the performing arts to foster hope in times of struggle and desperation. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jill Grinberg, Jill Grinberg Literary Management. [em](Jan.) [/em]