The Girl Who Sang: A Holocaust Memoir of Hope and Survival

Authors: Estelle Nadel and Bethany Strout

Illustrator: Sammy Savos

Born to a Jewish family in a small Polish village, Estelle Nadel―then known as Enia Feld―was just seven years old when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. Once a vibrant child with a song for every occasion, Estelle would eventually lose her voice, as over the next five years she would survive the deaths of her mother, her father, her eldest brother and sister, and countless others.

A child at the mercy of her neighbors during a terrifying time in history, The Girl Who Sang is a first-hand account of Estelle's fight for survival during World War II. She would weather loss, betrayal, and near execution and spend two years away from the warmth of the sun―all before the age of 11. Once the war was over, Estelle would walk barefoot across European borders and find remnants of home in an Austrian displaced persons camp before finally crossing the Atlantic to arrive in New York City―a young woman carrying the unseen scars of war.

Beautifully rendered in bright hues with expressive, emotional characters, this graphic novel illustrated by Sammy Savos brings Estelle's story of survival during the Holocaust to a whole new generation of readers. 

YA Nonfiction Graphic Novel

Reading Grades (7–9)

Paperback

272 pages