Maria is a Dutch-American illustrator and graphic novelist.who has written many picture books for children. Her graphic novel Song of a Blackbird is inspired by historic events, including those that affected her own family, during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam.
This story is dense with facts, ideas, comments (from the blackbird) and plenty of exciting action as it covers two time frames. In 2011 Annick’s Oma needs a bone marrow transplant but because she is adopted they have to find her biological family which means delving into the past in wartime Amsterdam in 1943. In 1943 we follow events as Emma joins the Dutch resistance, learns to make prints, smuggles fake ration cards and takes part in a daring bank heist. The two stories are connected by five art prints first seen at Oma’s house. Gradually as Annick explores links and makes connections the two stories merge.
This is a gripping account of a family torn apart by war but ultimately reunited. Maria integrates real photos into her graphic art for maximum impact. Sometimes there is a lot of text, as when she is explaining the difference between propaganda and art. Other times she lets pictures tell the story. It is a long story of 227 pages and is not an easy read. Some incidents are not for the faint-hearted, the knowledge that it is based on fact makes it all the more poignant, and I am not thinking of when the five resistance fighters get shot by firing squad but of the time the young Jewish boy, Soli, is locked up in an office vault for hours. It is a story full of sorrow and heartbreak but also of courage and hope.
