Rose by the Sea: An Armenian Journey of Courage and Hope

Based, per an author’s note, on the childhood events of Mooradian’s great-grandmother, this first-person story connects arrayed hues to a youth’s flight during the Armenian genocide. The child, Dzovinar, sees pastoral lakeside life upended when a day of gathering herbs ends with a return to the cottage—where the narrator and sister find their parents missing and their home rifled through. Early scenes of contentment (“Rose is the flower by our kitchen door... and the petals of poppies that my mother picks”) give way to portraits of destruction (“Brown is the soldier’s boot print on our front door”) and escape (“Black is the night we cross the desert”). Yim’s simple characterizations of the dot-eyed, pale-skinned protagonists contrast with the child’s deep interiority, hinted at in their rocking “between grief and hope,/ between guilt and joy” and imaginings of the siblings’ parents still at home, “together always.” Establishing a new residence, the sisters paint the walls in colorful hues that remind them of loved ones and home, contributing to a vibrant, layered collage of the duo’s experiences. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)