Just So Stories

Harper Collins Australia

August 2023

• ISBN: 9780063083905
• ISBN 10: 0063083906
• Imprint: HarperCollins US
• RRP: $16.99

 Sydney Taylor Book Award 2023 Middle Grade Notable

 Jewish Book Council Award Middle Grade Finalist

 Nerdy Book Club 2022 Best Novel-In-Verse Book

 New York Public Library 2022 Best Book For Kids

 Chicago Public Library Best Informational Books For Younger Readers Of 2022

I think it’s fair to say I’ve read quite a number of books of this genre, both factual and fictional, for middle grade readers, but I’m quite sure I’ve never read one that is written as a verse novel. And it’s also fair to say, that I’m pretty selective about verse novels, some I just can’t get into and others just flow like water. This is one of the latter.

Zhanna and Frina Arshanskaya were born in Ukraine, in 1927 and 1929 respectively. Their parents were not well-off. Their father was a sweetmaker, and also an amateur musician. Their small rented home, shared with the grandparents,was not fancy, but it was lively and happy, and filled with music.

Young Zhanna was fearless from the start. A mere toddler, she would not be contained at home but wandered all over their small resort town, always curious and always adventurous. Younger sister, Frina, was far more an ‘at home’ girl, staying close to her mama and the cosy safe home. But when the Nazis marched in, the family’s security was not only threatened by extinguished.

By this time, the two girls had already established themselves as child prodigy musicians, and were very well known and celebrated. But the ruthless invaders had no regard for this aspect, given the family’s Jewish identity. Being force-marched to their deaths, the girls’ father engineered for them to slip out of the column of victims, and so began a cat-and-mouse existence of hiding in plain sight.

This is a story like no other I have read. These girls were not given sanctuary to live in concealment. They fabricated for themselves new identities, and trusted to the kindness of strangers, for the most part, to re-establish themselves as performers but now, rather than for their countrymen, it was for the German war machine that they made music.

This is both fascinating and gripping to read. And the most amazing thing is that, likely the story would never have been told, had it not been for Zhanna’s young granddaughter being set a school assignment to interview her grandparent about what life was like at the same age.

I have only one trifling criticism about this book and that is to do with it’s presentation. I understand that it was first released as a hardback but this is the paperback version – and it is the type of paperback I have regularly encountered in American titles, with what feels like cheap paper and tiny print. But I hasten to stress,that it does not take away one whit from this extraordinary memoir.

You will have a ready audience for this one. We all know those readers who will read this genre and burn up with the injustice. These are the readers who will empower the future and I, for one, applaud them. Highly recommended for readers from around upper primary up to at least mid-secondary. I would urge to take time for this video ‘background’ to the memoir (and there are others) and also the teaching guide.