My Real Name Is Hanna

by Tara Lynn Masih

Overview

1941, Hitler's army crosses into Soviet-ruled Ukraine in a secret mission titled "Operation Barbarossa. A young Jewish girl, Hanna Slivka is fourteen when German soldiers arrive in her small village of Kwasova. Until their arrival, Hanna has split her time between playing with her younger siblings, sharing drawings with the sweet shy Leon Stadnick, and assisting her neighbor, Mrs. Petrovich, with her annual dyeing and selling of psyanky, decorative eggs.  But now, she, Leon and their families are forced into hiding, first in the woods outside of their town and then into caverns beneath it. They battle sickness and starvation, and the local peasants who join the Nazis in hunting Jews through the ravaged countryside, but at no time are they more tested than when Hanna's father – briefly above ground to scavenge for food – goes missing, and suddenly, it's on Hanna to find him, and to find a way to keep her mother, brother and sister alive. This novel is inspired by the true story of Esther Stermer and her family, who survived underground for 511 days. Less than 5% of the Jewish population in Ukraine survived these Holocaust "Actions." 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781942134497
Publisher:	Mandel Vilar Press
Publication date:	09/18/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	767,971
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Tara Lynn Masih is editor of two ForeWord Books of the Year, The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction and The Chalk Circle: Intercultural Prizewinning Essays. She is author of the critically acclaimed short story collection, Where the Dog Star Never Glows. In addition to other collections, her flash fiction has been anthologized in Flashed: Sudden Stories in Comics and Prose; Nothing Short of 100; and W. W. Norton's forthcoming New Microfiction. Awards for her work include a Skipping Stones Honor Award (for The Chalk Circle), the Lou P. Bunce Creative Writing Award, The Ledge Magazine's Fiction Award, Wigleaf Top 50 recognition, a finalist fiction grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and Pushcart Prize, Best New American Voices, and Best of the Web nominations. She was recently honored with a Neville Award Citation for exemplary stories that deal with climate change, and her essay "Be Prepared to Evacuate" was translated into a dance performance by Dance Box Theater. She is Founding Series Editor for The Best Small Fictions annual anthology and splits her time between Massachusetts and Florida. www.taramasih.com

Editorial Reviews

Tara Masih’s lovely, lyrical My Real Name is Hanna made me feel like I was reading a part of my parents’ story that I’d neglected to write. Filled with breathtaking you-are-there historical detail, filigreed with touches of Jewish and Ukrainian folklore, Masih’s tale of a young Jewish girl hiding out in the caves and forests of the Ukraine is a worthy addition to the canon of Holocaust literature for young readers. As fine, delicate, and artful as a painted pysanka egg.”–Helen Maryles Shankman, They Were Like Family to Me, finalist for The 2016 Story Prize

“It’s said the Holocaust defies imagination. Tara L. Masih defies that notion. My Real Name is Hanna is a powerful, revelatory leap of imagination, taking readers on a journey with 14-year-old Hanna from the slowly enveloping horror of the Holocaust, to the literal and spiritual depths of being buried alive, and finally a salvation of ineffable joy and sadness—emerging from a premature grave into sunlight like a defiant young phoenix. An unforgettable odyssey.”–Greg Dawson, Hiding in the Spotlight: A Musical Prodigy’s Story of Survival

“My Real name is Hanna is a beautifully told and deeply moving novel. Masih is to be commended for shining light on a little-known piece of Ukrainian history and for portraying a Jewish family determined to survive the Second World War. This novel is about the stories that surround and sustain us in the darkest times—from the histories in the trees and in the ground beneath us to the words that feed us.”–New York Times Bestselling Author Tilar J. Mazzeo, Irena’s Children, a New York Post Best Book of 2016

“From the very first lines, this is a beautiful, compelling story. I was moved again and again by Hanna’s courage. It takes a strong imagination and a great heart to bring to life a Jewish family’s struggle to survive in such a dark time as World War II. In bringing light to the caves of memory, Tara Masih gives us the redeeming power of storytelling in this extraordinary story.”–PEN/Hemingway Award winner Bobbie Ann Mason, The Girl in the Blue Beret and In Country

“My Real Name is Hanna is a stirring story of survival, resilience, and love. Masih breathes life into the smallest of details, and gives us a powerful look into a world not often explored.” –Crystal Chan, Bird, shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, winner of the 2015 Burr/Worzalla Award

“A gripping story of courage and endurance in the face of Nazi terror. Tara Masih draws her readers into the lives of a Ukrainian Jewish family, into the persecution and unbelievable hardship suffered during the German occupation of their homeland. My Real Name is Hanna is a book that lives with you long after you have turned the final page.”–Diney Costeloe, Bestselling Author of The Girl with No Name and The Throwaway Children

From the Publisher

09/01/2018
Gr 6 Up—This debut historical novel is a brilliantly rendered memorial to survivors of the Holocaust. Masih tells the story of Hanna Slivka, a teenage girl living in a small integrated community in Ukraine in 1941. The story begins before the Germans have invaded her small town, but not before the hatred of Hanna's heritage is first felt. From the very beginning, Hanna and her siblings are called ugly names by other children in the village, and as the German Army continues its campaign of hatred against the Jews, Hanna must see and hear things that no child ever should. Her family is forced to endure many injustices and humiliations once the Germans arrive and then it is too late for them to evacuate. Eventually, townspeople start to turn on one another for food and profit, and Hanna's family is forced to flee their home to the forest and caves in an attempt to survive. Although the topic of the Holocaust is now part of world history curriculum, students will find Masih's novel compelling. The story of the human spirit is richly embedded in the lives of a family trying desperately to not just stay alive but to stay together and to retain their faith. VERDICT A strong choice for young adult shelves.—Christina Paolozzi, Bonaire Elementary School, GA

School Library Journal

Suzanne Toren ably narrates this coming-of-age story of courage, survival, and hope inspired by real Holocaust events. Hannah Slivka is a teen living in the small town of Kwasova, in the Soviet-occupied Ukraine. When Hitler’s army marches across the border, Hannah’s family and other Jewish folks are imperiled. When the Gestapo orders that their lands be “free of Jews,” Hannah’s family and kin are forced to flee, leaving their homes behind. Toren’s narration makes the plight of these characters palpable. Although a bit slow in pacing, her delivery perfectly expresses their fear and despair as they try to survive living in forests and caves. When war finally breaks out, Toren skillfully conveys Hannah’s hope for an Allied victory and for building a new life. A.C. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2018 - AudioFile

2018-06-20
This story of a family of Ukrainian Jews hiding in a cave during the Holocaust was inspired by actual events.Told in the voice of an older woman looking back as she tells her daughter about her experiences, this is a carefully researched, often moving narrative of one family's struggle and survival. Teenage Hanna's family lived an integrated life in a shtetl in an area that was sometimes Polish, sometimes Austrian, and sometimes Ukrainian due to shifting borders. Hanna's bucolic childhood involved attending school and helping her Christian neighbor decorate pysanky, traditional Easter eggs, while observing Jewish holidays and traditions at home. When Germany invades, the family finds themselves persecuted for their religion and eventually forced into hiding, along with other families, first in remote forest cabins and then for over a year in a series of caves with underground lakes. Hanna's first-person narration has a nostalgic air, with often detailed descriptions that display the author's research but detract from the story; at the same time, history is treated as personal, and the larger context of the Holocaust is only suggested. Despite these flaws, this is a moving story of survival and of the compassion of the Christian neighbor and forester who aided the families.This peek into the minutiae of life in hiding is transformed from mundane to poignant by the extraordinary circumstances of time and place. (historical note) (Historical fiction. 12-15)

Kirkus Reviews