Br✡︎ken Strings

At the tender age of seven, my favorite movie was Norman Jewison's Fiddler on the Roof. Too long to fit onto a single VHS, the movie was released as a set of two VHS tapes in moody red packaging: a lone fiddler silhouetted on the front of the box. It was the first thing that I ever bought with my own money. At the time, I didn't know that the story was set during the Russian pogroms at the turn of the twentieth century. I knew that 'bad things' were happening in the background (as well as the foreground), but was too young to fully grasp the context.

It can be hard to introduce our children to certain unthinkable events in human history (the pogroms and certainly the holocaust not least among them). But then, what is the alternative? November 1 - 7, 2023 is Holocaust Education Week. The newly re-opened Toronto Holocaust Museum has lots of events throughout the month of November and I am reminded that, at some point, it becomes incumbent upon us to pass along the stories of things that we hope will never be repeated.

In their co-authored book, Broken Strings, Canadian writers Eric Walters and Kathy Kacer manage to craft a deeply-felt, powerful novel for children that deals with some of the past's harshest realities (Kacer's parents were both holocaust survivors and she has written several books about the lives of young Jewish people during the second world war).

The novel is set around a school production of Fiddler on the Roof. Shirli Berman is hoping for the splashier role of Hodel (the sister with the best solo), but is cast, instead, in the role Golde (the mother). While searching her grandfather's attic for costumes and props for the play, she comes across an old violin and a poster of her grandfather as a child—holding this exact violin! It doesn't make any sense, considering that the man has always avoided music. He never attends any of her shows or even turns on the radio. What Shirli has uncovered is a mystery that will lead into some of the darkest times in the family's past.

The real achievement of this novel is that it manages to impress the reader with the uplifting power of music and art, even while it delves into some decidedly difficult topics. A good read for slightly older, middle grade children.

By Victoria Murgante

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