This story tells of the struggles of three orphaned Armenian children: Shahen Donabedian, his twin sister Sosi, and their little sister Mariam. Before the attack on their village, Shahen's father had counted both Turks and Kurds among his best friends. All three ethnic groups, the Turks, the Kurds, and the Armenians, had lived together in peace.
When the Turks attack before dawn, the children's parents hurry them out of the house with urgent instructions to go to the high hills where the sheep graze and hide there until their parents come for then. If their parents don't come, they are told not to return to the village, but to stay high in the mountains and head south to Aleppo, a Syrian city that is frequently in the news today, and then find a way to get to their uncle in New York.
The savagery of the genocide is described in sickening detail, but it also shows that kindness and hope can still prevail.when we find our common humanity. (Author speaking on the origins of the book in her own mother's life.)
If you want to read more about this genocide, we have the following books in the TA library:
- The Road From Home by David Kherdian (Biography 921/Kherdian)
- Forgotten Fire by Adam Bagdasarian (Fiction)
- Geonocide: Modern Crimes Against Humanity by Brendan January (Nonfiction 304.663/Jan)
- The Milk of Birds by Sylvia Whitman (Fiction)
- Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick (Fiction)
- Over a Thousand Hill I Walk With You by Hanna Jansen (Fiction)