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by Tara Lynn Masih
Inspired by real Holocaust events, this poignant debut novel is a powerful coming-of-age story that will resonate with fans of The Book Thief and Between Shades of Gray.
Hanna Slivka is on the cusp of fourteen when Hitler's army crosses the border into Soviet-occupied Ukraine. Soon, the Gestapo closes in, determined to make the shtetele she lives in "free of Jews." Until the German occupation, Hanna spent her time exploring Kwasova with her younger siblings, admiring the drawings of the handsome Leon Stadnick, and helping her neighbor dye decorative pysanky eggs. But now she, Leon, and their families are forced to flee and hide in the forest outside their shtetele--and then in the dark caves beneath the rolling meadows, rumored to harbor evil spirits.
Underground, they battle sickness and starvation, while the hunt continues above. When Hanna's father disappears, suddenly it's up to Hanna to find him--and to find a way to keep the rest of her family, and friends, alive.
Sparse, resonant, and lyrical, weaving in tales of Jewish and Ukrainian folklore, My Real Name Is Hanna celebrates the sustaining bonds of family, the beauty of a helping hand, and the tenacity of the human spirit.
"A strong choice for young adult shelves." —School Library Journal
"A carefully researched, often moving narrative of one family's struggle for survival." —Kirkus Reviews
"Hanna's story brutally captures the slow, relentless creep of wartime chaos into ordinary lives, then uncovers an astonishing, rich vein of hope in a world gone utterly dark. The anguish and love painted here are both timeless and timely." —Elizabeth Wein, New York Times bestselling author of Code Name Verity
"A gripping story of courage and endurance in the face of Nazi terror ... My Real Name Is Hanna is a book that lives with you long after you have turned the final page." —Diney Costeloe, best-selling author of The Girl with No Name and The Throwaway Children
This information about My Real Name is Hanna was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
My Real Name Is Hanna is inspired by the true story of a Jewish family in Ukraine who sought refuge underground from the Nazis. Their story—like so many Ukrainian stories of the Holocaust—has yet to be explored in fiction. It's estimated that less than 5 percent of the Jewish population in Ukraine survived the Holocaust Aktions.
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