BookBrowse Reviews The Blood Years by Elana K. Arnold

Elana K. Arnold's YA novel The Blood Years narrates the story of Frederieke "Rieke" Teitler, a young Jewish girl in Holocaust-era Romania. As the oppression of Jews escalates in the city of Czernowitz, Rieke and her family find themselves forced to do whatever it takes to survive and stay together.

Rieke and her family are based on the author's grandmother, Frieda, and other relatives. Many of the events depicted in the book came directly from stories Frieda told Arnold, including the circumstances of Frieda's birth, the family's abandonment by Frieda's father, and Frieda's time as a dancer. Also true are the antisemitic episodes that led to the loss of Frieda's grandfather's shop, the terror of Frieda's tuberculosis, and the horrific murder of a family member outside the Teitler's home. Arnold blends fiction with the truth to portray the trauma of the Jews who survived the war years...