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bibi003's review against another edition
4.0
I listened to this audiobook with my kids (8 and 12) on a road trip. It was fascinating, heartbreaking, and life-affirming. It grabbed our attention and kept it for the whole 3 hour drive.
The style was unique in the way that it included different poetic forms throughout the book.
The style was unique in the way that it included different poetic forms throughout the book.
jnishi's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely wonderful book with a true story that must must be shared. Will be putting this one in the school library.
amygatzemeyer's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.0
abanas's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
bibliobrandie's review against another edition
5.0
This might be my new favorite historical fiction novel-in-verse! It's an incredible story of piano prodigy sisters, Sisters Zhanna and Frina Arshanskaya, who hide in plain site during the Holocaust. Incredible back matter includes a note from Zhanna's son and an explanation of all the poetry forms used to tell this story (will for sure use during poetry month!). A must read!!
abeckett's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.0
lawbooks600's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
4.0
Score: Six and a half out of ten.
Well. Alias Anna circled my recommendations till I saw it on a library display shelf when I decided to pick it up. I glanced at the blurb, making it seem unique as it was a biography-in-verse about a young musician set in World War Two. I picked the book up and when I closed the final page, I enjoyed most of it, except for one part.
It starts with the first person I see, Zhanna, living peacefully as a child in the late 1920s and early 1930s in what is now Ukraine in the opening pages. Everything changed in the late 1930s when the war began, but not much happens initially until 1941, when the Germans invaded Ukraine, forcing Zhanna and her family to leave. There is a crucial subplot involving Zhanna becoming a pianist from her early childhood and her sister, Frina, later joins her, which I found intriguing.
Soon enough, Zhanna and Frina were alone and the only action they could do is escape to any safe place they could find, but most prominently, they had to change their names to Anna and Marina respectively, so no one could discover who they were. Zhanna and her sister continued to use their aliases until the end of the war when they found peace in Berlin due to other helpful people, but I had a problem with one page. The narrative says music was a way to bring the Nazis and the Jews on the same level away from the war on that page.
The authors, Susan Hood and Greg Dawson, could've removed it, but it stayed there. What is the point of this passage? Is it trying to say that all people are equal and music is a way to bring them together and a coping strategy to ignore the war? The Nazis and the Jews are not on the same level. I could've given Alias Anna eight out of ten, but those words alone made me knock off a point and a half. I liked the writing style, which is all in poetry and not spaced out prose like other novels-in-verse, the overarching theme of resilience and the extra reading material in the end. The conclusion is a high note when Zhanna moves to America after the conflict. That's it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Antisemitism, and War
Full trigger warnings: Death and murder of parents, mass death, antisemitism, World War Two, military violence and war themes, imprisonment, concentration camps, poverty, explosions, displacement, refugee experiencesgingertonks's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
3.75
This book of poetry was so full of information about WWII that I hadn’t known before. Encouraged by a letter received from her granddaughter, this is the true story of Zhanna and her sister Frinna, who miraculously survived the holocaust due to their wits and their musical virtuosity
amieeaya's review against another edition
fast-paced
4.25
So much history in this novel in verse. It was helpful to know WWII German and Russian history. And now there is so much more I want to know about this story. Pairs well with I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys.
cindygreenwood's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
4.5