Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

That’s mostly what today is for the week, folks–except for my run to pick up library holds and prescriptions. I have paid a stack of bills, I’ve unloaded the dishwasher in preparation for my post-lunch dishes date, and at the moment, I’m eating leftovers for lunch and writing the review I didn’t write on Monday. (In case you’re wondering, I didn’t get to it on Monday because I spent most of the school day at the school, helping with vision screening. The good news is that my youngest won’t be seeing the eye doctor any time soon; the bad news is that at least one of her good friends isn’t so lucky.)

So. I actually finished Alias Anna: A True Story of Outwitting the Nazis late last week, and it was a thoroughly fascinating story. The “Anna” of the title’s true name was Zhanna Arshanskaya, and she and her younger sister were piano prodigies living in Ukraine when the Nazis invaded. As Jews, they came close enough to death that their names are actually listed as casualties at the Drobitsky Yar memorial; how they escaped, and how they LIVED, is a story that lay buried for decades. I shan’t spoil the details for you, because (unless you have a serious aversion to verse novels) this is a story you should absolutely read for yourself. Susan Hood (who collaborated with Gred Dawson, Zhanna’s son) incorporates a number of specific poetic forms into what is mostly free verse, and recognizing some of them (even if I’d forgotten their official names) upped my enjoyment of the format just that much more. Holocaust narratives are usually a poignant reminder that fear can bring out the best OR the worst in people, and Zhanna’s story is no exception; don’t miss this one.