title: The Wren and the Sparrow (Holocaust)
author:  J. Patrick Lewis 
description: Gr 6 UpA picture book about the Holocaust best appreciated by older readers. Lewis's tale takes place in the Lodz Ghetto in 1944 Warsaw and is based upon the events surrounding the forced surrender of all musical instruments. In "a little hamlet in the center of Poland, hung on the edge of despair.On a day that shamed the sky," soldiers displaying armbands with swastikas force the townspeople to hand over their musical instrumentsfor many, their most cherished possessionand toss them into wagons. An old carpet weaverthe Wren, known for his beautiful voicearrives in a velvet horsedrawn coach with his studentthe Sparrowat his side. He begins to play his hurdy-gurdy and sing one last song "so that no one will ever forget this day." He leads the townspeople in a song of grief and sadness, of protest against the evil Tyrant. The hurdy-gurdy is seized, the old man dragged away, and "the day sealed itself into the lockbox of memory." Only the instrument survives, rescued in darkness by the Sparrow and hidden in a basement, where a young boy eventually finds it, reads the Wren's hidden message, and carries his treasure wherever he travels, passing it on to his great-grandchildren. The grim story has a clear message, and hope is evident in the end. Nayberg's abstract paintings, harboring hints of Modigliani and Chagall, pair well with this story. An author's note on the Lodz Ghetto and music is appended. VERDICT The picture book format may keep this carefully written and illustrated tale from reaching the audience that will best relate to it.Susan Scheps, formerly at Shaker Public Library, OH
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  ![](images/00001.jpg)
  
  Cover image: Woman © Mark Owen / Trevillion Images; Sparrows Eating ©
  MihaiDancaescu / Shutterstock Images. Peterloo Massacre by
  
  
  Richard Carlile (1790–1843) Public Domain courtesy Manchester Library Services
  
  Cover design copyright © 2017 by Covenant Communications, Inc.
  
  Published by Covenant Communications, Inc.
  
  American Fork, Utah
  
  Copyright © 2017 by Jen Geigle Johnson
  
  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any format or
  in any medium without the written permission of the publisher, Covenant
  Communications, Inc., P.O. Box 416, American Fork, UT 84003. The views
  expressed within this work are the sole responsibility of the author and do
  not necessarily reflect the position of Covenant Communications, Inc., or any
  other entity.
  
  This is a work of fiction. The characters, names, incidents, places, and
  dialogue are either products of the author’s imagination, and are not to be
  construed as real, or are used fictitious