Broken Song

Publishers Weekly

Reuven Bloom, who aided Sashie and her family in their flight from Russia in The Night Journey, tells his own story of leaving Russia for Poland in 1897, in Broken Song by Kathryn Lasky, set during a time when the tsar's soldiers led pogroms against the Jews. (Mar.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

VOYA

In 1897, the life of Jews in Russia was extremely difficult and dangerous. The people lived in fear of the tsar's soldiers who went from village to village looking for able-bodied Jewish boys who would be forced to join the army. Rueven Bloom is just such a boy. He lives on the Pale with the rest of his family, and is a genius when it comes to playing the violin. Life is difficult on the Pale, but Rueven and his family survive as best they can. Unfortunately one night during Hanukkah, a celebration of light and miracles, a terrible thing happens to Rueven's family. He flees the Pale with his baby sister, Rachel, and learns that he must make many sacrifices in order to be free from the tsar's terrible persecution. Lasky takes one of the characters from The Night Journey (Puffin, 1986) and fleshes out his own story for readers to enjoy. They might remember Rueven as the person who helped Sashie and her family escape from Russia. Rueven's story is just as powerful and thought provoking as Sashie's. Lasky offers a historical note at the end of the novel that describes what Jewish life was like in Russia under the rule of the tsar. This novel is a wonderful companion piece and brings the stories of both Sashie and Rueven together in the end. VOYA CODES: 4Q 4P J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YA appeal; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2005, Viking, 160p., Ages 12 to 18.
—Jonatha Masters

School Library Journal

Gr 5-9-Through rich prose filled with imagery, distinct characterization, and historical research, Lasky breathes life into the horrific history of anti-Semitism in Russia in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. At the start of the book, 15-year-old Reuven Bloom, a talented violinist, focuses on music and trying to balance his Talmudic studies, but the vicious activities of the Czar's army soon change his life. His best friend is kidnapped and taken to be a soldier. Soldiers murder his parents and older sister, and only Reuven and his baby sister survive. Circumstances make the teen courageous as he tries to escape the Cossacks and to find a cousin in Vilna who might help him and Rachel reach safety in the United States. She is taken to America when Reuven agrees to join the revolutionary movement and fight, and he joins her six years later. This reads like an adventure story, but the research at its foundation is clearly evident. Reuven was first introduced in Lasky's The Night Journey (Penguin, 1986), but this novel easily stands on its own. An excellent addition to any collection.-Renee Steinberg, formerly at Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

This companion to Night Journey (1981) explores the plight of 15-year-old Reuven Bloom, a brilliant young Russian Jewish violinist whose music is "broken" by the horrors of late-19th-century pogroms. When his shtetl is attacked by marauding Cossacks and his family-save for his toddler sister-are slaughtered, Reuven desperately flees, shouldering little Rachel in a basket, until they reach family in Poland. A bitter Reuven joins an elite revolutionary group and becomes a demolitions expert. He makes the wrenching decision to let Rachel leave for America with relatives and stays behind to continue to exact vengeance. When the moment for revenge against his own family's murderer and thief of his expensive violin comes, though, Reuven has tired of killing and he merely wrests his beloved instrument back. By story's end, it is the early-20th century and Reuven arrives in New York and reunites with his family. The author offers readers, in a Dear America-style epilogue, follow-up information about Reuven's life. Lasky's writing is straightforward and unsentimental, sometimes a little pat, and her hero is a relatable and admirable protagonist. (historical note) (Fiction. 11-14)