Mapping the Bones, Jane Yolen
Mapping the Bones, Jane Yolen
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
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Mapping the Bones

Author: Jane Yolen

Narrator: Josh Bloomberg, Rebecca Gibel

Unabridged: 11 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 01/19/2021


Synopsis

From the bestselling and award-winning author of The Devil's Arithmetic, Jane Yolen, comes her first Holocaust novel in nearly thirty years. Influenced by Dr. Mengele's sadistic experimentations, this story follows twins as they travel from the Lodz ghetto, to the partisans in the forest, to a horrific concentration camp where they lose everything but each other.

It's 1942 in Poland, and the world is coming to pieces. At least that's how it seems to Chaim and Gittel, twins whose lives feel like a fairy tale torn apart, with evil witches, forbidden forests, and dangerous ovens looming on the horizon. But in all darkness there is light, and the twins find it through Chaim's poetry and the love they have for each other. Like the bright flame of a Yahrzeit candle, his words become a beacon of memory so that the children and grandchildren of survivors will never forget the atrocities that happened during the Holocaust.

Filled with brutality and despair, this is also a story of poetry and strength, in which a brother and sister lose everything but each other. Nearly thirty years after the publication of her award-winning and bestselling The Devil's Arithmetic and Briar Rose, Yolen once again returns to World War II and captivates audiences with the authenticity and power of her words.

About Jane Yolen

Born and raised in New York City, Jane Yolen now lives in Hatfield, Massachusetts. She attended Smith College and received her master's degree in education from the University of Massachusetts. The distinguished author of more than 170 books, Jane Yolen is a person of many talents. When she is not writing, Yolen composes songs, is a professional storyteller on the stage, and is the busy wife of a university professor, the mother of three grown children, and a grandmother. All of Yolen's stories and poems are rooted in her sense of family and self. The Emperor and the Kite, which was a Caldecott Honor Book in 1983 for its intricate paper-cut illustrations by Ed Young, was based on Yolen's relationship with her late father, who was an international kite-flying champion. Owl Moon, winner of the 1988 Caldecott Medal for John Schoenherr's exquisite watercolors, was inspired by her husband's interest in birding.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Lara on March 29, 2018

This is a good book, but not an easy one. Just remember, when you're blinking back tears in parts--this is "Hansel and Gretel". Gretel will always shove the witch into the oven.......more

Goodreads review by Alicia on June 03, 2018

This meaty WWII story that is a retelling of the Hansel and Gretel tale with Chaim and Gittel, twins who are taken to the labor camps in 1942 and the horrific abuse they endured especially being young twins at the hands of an evil doctor. The beauty of the book is Chaim's poetry and their familial a......more

Goodreads review by Suzanne on June 22, 2018

Oof. This was a tough read. I love Jane Yolen and was excited to get this copy (signed by the author) but it's no fairy tale. Not that any Holocaust book should be. It's beautifully written, in simple prose that puts you right there, with the protagonists. It's not melodramatic or heart-tuggy and it d......more