The Blood Years
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Named a best book of the year by the Boston Globe, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, SLJ, ALA Booklist, the Horn Book, and more
Recipient of five starred reviews
From Michael L. Printz honoree & National Book Award finalist Elana K. Arnold comes the harrowing story of a young girl's struggle to survive the Holocaust in Romania.
Frederieke Teitler and her older sister, Astra, live in a house, in a city, in a world divided. Their father ran out on them when Rieke was only six, leaving their mother a wreck and their grandfather as their only stable family. Heâs done his best to provide for them and shield them from antisemitism, but now, seven years later, being a Jew has become increasingly dangerous, even in their beloved home of Czernowitz, long considered a safe haven for Jewish people. And when Astra falls in love and starts pulling away from her, Rieke wonders if thereâs anything in her life she can count onâand, if so, if she has the power to hold on to it.
Thenâwar breaks out in Europe. First the Russians, then the Germans, invade Czernowitz. Almost overnight, Rieke and Astraâs world changes, and every day becomes a struggle: to keep their grandfatherâs business, to keep their home, to keep their lives. Rieke has long known that she exists in a world defined by those who have power and those who do not, and as those powers close in around her, she must decide whether holding on to her life might mean letting go of everything that has ever mattered to herâand if thatâs a choice she will even have the chance to make.
Based on the true experiences of her grandmotherâs childhood in Holocaust-era Romania, award-winning author Elana K. Arnold weaves an unforgettable tale of love and loss in the darkest days of the twentieth centuryâand one young womanâs will to survive them.
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Elana K. Arnold is the award-winning author of many books for children and teens, including the Sydney Taylor and National Jewish Book Award winner The Blood Years, the Printz Honor winner Damsel, the National Book Award finalist What Girls Are Made Of, and the Global Read Aloud selection A Boy Called Bat. She is a member of the faculty at Hamline Universityâs MFA in writing for children and young adults program and lives in Long Beach, California, with her husband, two children, and a menagerie of animals. You can find her online at elanakarnold.com.
