From the Bookshelf of La Crescent Public Library…

[close] Winner of the 2024 Sydney Taylor Book Award, which recognizes youth and teen literature that authentically portray the Jewish experience, this book is a gripping read based on the author's grandmother's own story.

Following a Jewish family in Czernowitz, Romania, and told from the 15 year old daughter's perspective, The Blood Years chronicles what so many Jewish families endured during WWII and the time leading up Romania's allyship with the Axis powers. Arnold does an exceptional job articulating the antisemitism views of the Iron Guard and people in power that led up to WWII, and in her afterword challenges the rhetoric and behavior we still see today across the globe.

As difficult as the story is to read, Arnold has written it with the firsthand accounts, humanity, vulnerability and strength of those who lived (and died) through it. A must read for teens and adults alike learning about the Holocaust and its many outer waves and after effects.

~ Jess