This Book, Today
Today is publication day! The Year of Goodbyes is about my mother's experience in 1938 Nazi Germany. It's about what that year was like for my mom, then a tween with the usual concerns about friends, gymnastics, and the latest American movies--but also a girl who saw her friends and their families inexplicably disappear; who heard whispers about mysterious places called "concentration camps"; who saw her father's increasingly desperate efforts to navigate the less-than-welcoming U.S. immigration and visa system. (Click here for more information about the book.)
This is a re-issue of The Year of Goodbyes, which originally came out in 2010. It has a new cover, which I love; newly designed interior pages, which I love; and a spot-on foreword by kids' author extraordinaire Tom Angleberger, which I love. I'm grateful to my publisher, Disney-Hyperion, for giving this book a new lease on life. I'll be talking about The Year of Goodbyes at events this fall, starting tomorrow at a forum focused on the impact of immigration on children coming into the United States, convened by the Tikkun Olam Women's Foundation of Greater Washington, DC.
With four books released between August and November--this will never happen again in my writing life!--I don't have a launch event planned specifically for The Year of Goodbyes. So this post is my book party, complete with a couple of photos from our very celebratory 2010 launch. The Year of Goodbyes is a Parents' Choice Award winner, a Sydney Taylor Notable Book, a Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Book, a VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates) Nonfiction Honor book--and it's so close to my heart. Please help me spread the word, and put my mother's story, as relevant today as it was a decade ago, in the hands of readers everywhere.
(The book's cover photo, by the way, is Mom on the deck of the RMS Queen Mary in November 1938, on her way to New York City. Coincidentally, a few days ago The Washington Post ran an article about the ship's role in bringing Jews to the United States. Some great photos and a video there, too.)
