The Blood Years
(Young Adult Book)

Frederieke Teitler and her sister, Astra, live in a home, in a city, in a world divided. Their father left when Rieke was only six, leaving their mother a wreck and their grandfather as their only stable family. He's done his best to provide for them and shield them from antisemitism, but now being a Jew has become increasingly dangerous, even in their beloved home of Czernowitz, long considered a safe haven for Jewish people. And when Astra falls in love and starts pulling away from her, Rieke wonders if there's anything in her life she can count on--and if she has the power to hold onto it. Then war breaks out in Europe. First the Russians, then the Germans, invade Czernowitz. Almost overnight, Rieke and Astra's world changes, and ever day becomes a struggle: to keep their grandfather's business, to keep their home, to keep their lives. Rieke has long known that she exists in a world defined by those who have power and those who do not, and as those powers close in around her, she wonders if holding on to her life might mean letting go of everything else--if that's a choice she will even have the chance to make. Based on her grandmother's experiences in Holocaust-era Romania, National Book Award finalist and Printz honoree Elana K. Arnold weaves a heartbreaking tale of love and loss in the darkest days of the twentieth century--and one young woman's will to survive them.