Title: Anna and the Swallow Man

Author: Gavriel Savit

Publisher: Knopf

Pub. Date: 26 January 2016

Genre: YA, Historical Fiction, War

Anna is a young girl in 1939 Poland when the Germans come and take away her father. Left alone to fend for herself, she falls into the care of the Swallow Man, who teaches her how to survive the fantastic journey they must take to save a mythical endangered animal. As she gets older, she discovers that the world she has come to trust might be becoming more dangerous than the world she has been hiding from. Will she be able to keep going? Where will she go to escape the dangers all around her?

I really enjoyed this tale of a world war two orphan and her magical caretaker. Savit is a true storyteller. Some of the concepts and imagery might be disturbing to children under age ten-ish, in my opinion, and the overall story meaning is complex and dark. Buy it for your older teen.

A review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.