Overview

""A beautiful story filled with empathy for those grappling with memory loss."" -Kirkus Reviews A young girl is able to evoke smiles and memories when she plays the music of Swan Lake for her grandmother, a former ballerina who now suffers from Alzheimer's. Once Nana pirouetted like moonlight shimmering on a lake. But now the Memory Thief has come. Nana sits still like a whisper. Sarah and her Nana used to spend their days baking challah together for Shabbat and dancing like the flames of Hanukkah candles. But now Nana is sick; she mostly talks about the past, has trouble remembering the right words, and hardly smiles. Sarah wants to help her Nana. She listens to the stories and helps when Nana forgets words. But there must be something else she can do to make Nana happy again. That's when Sarah gets the idea to play the music of Swan Lake that Nana used to hear when she was a ballerina. Listening to it again makes Nana light up, and she remembers how to dance again with Sarah. Backmatter includes a glossary for Jewish and ballet vocabulary and a note discussing the author's own experiences with loved ones diagnosed with Alzheimer's, as well as the true story of Marta Cinta Gonzlez, a ballerina who remembered the dances she used to do despite her disease.

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9781681156941

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Reviews

""In this tale inspired by the experiences of prima ballerina Marta Cinta González, a former dancer struggling with Alzheimer’s disease unlocks her memory with the help of her grandchild. Nana no longer knows how to braid challah for Shabbat, and she no longer dances with her grandchild, Sarah, the way they used to. Distressed, Sarah seeks ways to release Nana from the grip of the Memory Thief. With love and compassion, Sarah tries to lift the curtain on the memories stolen from Nana and help her rediscover the magic of dancing on the stage. After grabbing Nana’s cell phone and playing music from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Sarah reaches through the past to reconnect Nana to her days as a ballerina. Nana leaves her present difficulties behind and once again soars in the spotlight as she rediscovers her love for ballet. The book is gracefully infused with Jewish concepts and traditions: Nana tells Sarah that they are “braided together, just like challah,” the two of them dance like the “flickering flames on a Hanukkah menorah,” and when Nana can’t find the right words, Sarah suggests that they’re hiding, “like the afikoman at Passover.” Lewkowicz’s gentle and evocative text shimmers with the language and symbolism of ballet, while Garland’s sweeping strokes and bold colors effectively show the contrast between Nana’s former triumphs and her new reality. Nana and Sarah are light-skinned. A beautiful story filled with empathy for those grappling with memory loss. (glossary of ballet and Jewish terms)"" —Kirkus Reviews

Author Information

Freda Lewkowicz is a writer and a retired teacher. She won the 2021 Astra International Picture Book Writing Contest for her manuscript titled SONGS OF THE REFUGEE. She is the recipient of the 2005 Quebec government Anne Greenup Award for Work Against Racism, Prejudice and Hate. Freda taught English at Rosemere High School for 39 years. She was also a part-time freelance journalist for Canadian newspapers. Today Freda is an advocate for her mother, a Holocaust survivor. Her parents’ stories inspired her to write picture books about the Holocaust, intergenerational love, and dementia. She lives in Montreal, Quebec. Sally Anne Garland loved drawing and stories from a very early age. After studying illustration at Edinburgh College Of Art she worked for many years as an in-house Designer/ Illustrator for a number of retail suppliers, before becoming a full-time freelance Children’s Illustrator with Advocate Art Ltd in 2010. She is also the author of two picture books, Share and Don’t Speak With Your Mouth Full, published with Little Tiger Press. She lives in Glasgow with her partner and son.

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