About this item
"Evocative and hopeful, " says Newbery Honor-Winner Rita Williams-Garcia of this intense survival story set during the Armenian genocide of 1915. It is 1914, and the Ottoman Empire is crumbling into violence. Beyond Anatolia, in the Armenian Highlands, Shahen Donabedian dreams of going to New York. Sosi, his twin sister, never wants to leave her home, especially now that she is in love. At first, only Papa, who counts Turks and Kurds among his closest friends, stands in Shahen's way. But when the Ottoman pashas set in motion their plans to eliminate all Armenians, neither twin has a choice. After a horrifying attack leaves them orphaned, they flee into the mountains, carrying their little sister, Mariam. But the children are not alone. An eagle watches over them as they run at night and hide each day, making their way across mountain ridges and rivers red with blood. A YALSA Best Fiction Nomination A Notable Books for a Global Society Award Winner A CBC Notable Social Studies Trade Book of the YearA Bank Street College of Education Best Book of the Yearwith Outstanding Merit I have walked through the remnants of the Armenian civilization in Palu and Chunkush, I have stood on the banks of the Euphrates. And still I was unprepared for how deeply moved I would be by Dana Walrath s poignant, unflinching evocation of the Armenian Genocide. Her beautiful poetry and deft storytelling stayed with me long after I had finished this powerful novel in verse. Chris Bohjalian, author of "The Sandcastle Girls" and "Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands" A heartbreaking tale of familial love, blind trust, and the crushing of innocence. A fine and haunting work. Karen Hesse, Newbery Medal winning author of Out of the Dust This eloquent verse novel brings one of history s great tragedies to life. Margarita Engle, Newbery Honor winning author of "The Surrender Tree"*"This beautiful, yet at times brutally vivid, historical verse novel will bring this horrifying, tragic period to life for astute, mature readers. " "School Library Journal, " Starred "A powerful tale balancing the graphic reality of genocide with a shining spirit of hope and bravery in young refugees coming to terms with their world. " "BOOKLIST " The emotional impact these events had on individuals will certainly resonate. "Kirkus Reviews" "From the Hardcover edition. ""
About the Author
I was born in Greensboro, North Carolina but my parents moved us back to New York City before I could even hold my head up. Like all young primates, I started out using my eyes and hands long before I began to use words. Reading came late - when it did I was crazy for books. The windows of my childhood bedroom were high and faced the street. After I was tucked in for the night, I would stand in my bed and read by streetlight. Still, unlike most writers, I never kept a journal or wrote a story or poem in grade school. All of my school papers were done with great anguish and at the last minute. Instead, I was always outside running or climbing or sledding or drawing or making something with my hands. As a young New Yorker at Barnard College, Columbia University, I continued to avoid writing, and split my courses between visual arts and biology: painting with Milton Resnick, printmaking with Tony Smith, and lab work on the eye-brain connections of zebrafish. My oil paintings and intaglio prints were abstractions inspired by natural and biological forms of all scales. I was equally drawn to imagery seen under the microscope, and the sweep of the earth's surface particularly when it has been worked and touched by humans for millennia. A teaching thread in my life began when, fresh out of 10th grade, I landed with my family in Taiz, Yemen, and was promptly hired to teach 6th and 7th grade science and math at Yemen's first experiment in bilingual co-education. More teaching continued out of college as an artist in residence for the Dobbs Ferry New York Public Schools, and as a Biology Lab Instructor at Barnard. As a young mother struggling to find time to make art, I decided to get "practical" (I know!) and wrote a dissertation on the anthropology of childbirth from the University of Pennsylvania. Anthropology - a discipline all about connections between every facet of being human - welcomed art and science and unlocked the creative writing door for me. Since moving to the mountains of Vermont with my husband and three sons in the summer of 2000, I've used stories and art to teach medical students at the University of Vermont's College of Medicine. Creative writing and artwork was done mostly during hours stolen from sleep and squeezed between other responsibilities. The balance tipped toward creative work shortly after my mother, Alice, and dementia moved in with us. Alice had always wanted me to be a doctor. When she stood in my kitchen in early 2008, admiring the cabinet knobs I had hand painted and said, "You should quit your job and make art full time," I listened, and I haven't looked back. When Alice lived with us, I had the great pleasure of earning an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
