Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Children’s, Teenage & Educational

BLACK BIRD, BLUE ROAD

Sofiya Pasternack

In this historical fantasy novel from Sydney Taylor Honor winner and National Jewish Book Award finalist Sofiya Pasternack, Ziva will do anything to save her twin brother Pesah from his illness - even facing the Angel of Death himself.

Pesah has lived with leprosy for years, and the twins have spent most of that time working on a cure. Then Pesah has a vision: The Angel of Death will come for him on Rosh Hashanah, just one month away.

So Ziva takes her brother and runs away to find doctors who can cure him. But when they meet and accidentally free a half-demon boy, he suggests paying his debt by leading them to the fabled city of Luz, where no one ever dies - the one place Pesah will be safe.

They just need to run faster than The Angel of Death can fly...

Sofiya Pasternack is the author of the Sydney Taylor Honor winners Anya and the Dragon and Anya and the Nightingale. She is a nurse whose fondest childhood memories involve her pet goats wrecking the house. When she's not at the hospital, she can be found enjoying Utah's wild places, teaching her kids to make challah, and writing whatever new story has taken up residence in her brain.

Available products
Book Published 2022-09-20 by Versify

Comments

...dazzling historical fantasy... Pasternack imagines a rich, omen-filled journey that powerfully shows love and its limits. Read more...

Unforgettable... Cleverly weaves mythology and Jewish traditions to highlight the incredible courage and resilience of family.

Pasternak's historical fantasy weaves Jewish mythology and traditions into this heroine's journey that asks readers to contemplate issues of life and death. Readers will be intrigued by the ravens that follow Pesah everywhere, the details of the city of Luz (where no one dies), and Pesah's vision that the Angel of Death will visit him on Rosh Hashanah. This works as an adventure, but it should also prompt discussions about the ethics of preserving life at all costs.

Part fantasy, part adventure... a touching story about the lengths we go to save those we love. A magical tale, beautifully told.

Pasternack ... writes with a storyteller's cadence without sacrificing liveliness, keeping emotions front and center...

... this moving tale steeped in Jewish lore is a welcome addition to middle grade fantasy shelves... An omniscient narrator addresses the reader in interludes that lend the text a mythic feel, while the main narrative is a rousing adventure and coming of age story inflected by Ziva's internal struggles. Keep a box of tissues handy...

More than simply an adventure, this is a story about grief and illness and arguing with the rules of the world, enduring and enjoying the living that happens between now and the end, threaded through with the profound, unshakeable love of two brave siblings. Propulsive, wise, and heartbreaking.

A bit reminiscent of Madeleine L'Engle, a bit reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz, this story... will keep young readers breathless until its heart-rending conclusion.

A gripping story of two siblings that will do everything they can to save each other... Brilliantly crafted, heartbreakingly beautiful.