IRL: Grade 5+
Sydney Taylor Book Award (Honor Book – Middle Grade – 2024)

I would have loved this book when I was 11, 10, 9, 12 even more that I did now. It’s a book I would have buried myself in and not abandoned reading until I finished it. I love it now too. It’s a special book. I will check out this author’s other books.

This is kind of a cross between the Little House on the Prairie books and the All of A Kind Family books and The Children’s Blizzard too. I looked up North Dakota blizzards in the early 1900s.

The book shows antisemitism in ways more intense than the books from my childhood but I think it is at an appropriate level for middle grade readers. The book started with an attack for being Jewish in Ukraine and showed plenty of instances of anti-Jewish feelings in North Dakota.

The conditions in North Dakota at that time were brutal (and fascinating to read about!) but the right to own land and freedom from violence, though not from prejudice, makes emigration make sense.

There is useful and interesting history information included in the author’s note including links to learn more about the Dakota people and the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, and also the history of the Jews in the Russian Empire and the Pale of Settlement. This book is obviously well researched and sources are listed in the back of the book.

I loved the way the family relationships were shown. They seemed completely authentic, and I especially enjoyed the relationships between the older daughters and the younger daughters. The cat is great. The dog is great. There is a horse. There is the prairie. There is the fiddle music. There is Channukah and it ends up having a crucial part in one scene in the story. All of the characters seem real. Family members, friends, the teacher, local people in both North Dakota and Ukraine. This was a book that was easy to get into and hard to put down. The writing is lovely. The storytelling is compelling. The characters and relationships ring true.

What felt slightly off to me is some of what 11-year-old Shoshana knows and a couple of the terms she uses when she uses them. Even though the flaws of the family members are definitely shown, they do seem maybe just slightly too good. There is also the obvious attempt to educate about Judaism and the Dakota, though I wish there had been more about the latter. I think for the target audience they’re not going to nitpick any of the things that I did. I would not have even noticed them as a child.

All the way through I debated about giving it 4 or 5 stars and I’m still conflicted.
4-1/2 stars, and I’ve changed my mind and decided to round up to 5. It’s just too good for a 4 only. I started with rounding down to 4. For me this is exactly a 4-1/2 star book so I’m letting my younger self make the final decision. Yes, I loved the book and I don’t think that I’ll change my mind again.

Highly recommended for people who enjoy children’s historical fiction stories, historical fiction prairie stories, stories about Jewish families, and most 9-12 year old readers. This would also make a perfect read aloud for classrooms and for families. There is a lot readers/listeners might want to discuss. ( )

First sentence: At first, they only threw tomatoes. Then it was rocks. Soon you couldn't tell what was the splatter of tomato and what was blood. Women screamed and ran, stumbling over rolling cabbages, crashing into tipped-over carts. Others frantically tried to snatch up squashes and radishes and onions before they were trampled.

Premise/plot: Shoshana and her family have emigrated from Russia to North Dakota. (Technically, her father and brother emigrated together first, got the homestead, earned enough money to send back home. Shoshana and her mother and sisters came later, in the interim, persecution of the Jews only worsened.) This historical MG is set circa 1905/1906 in rural (prairie) North Dakota. The family lives in a dugout. The neighbors aren't near. And the neighbors are mostly if not exclusively Christian. The neighbors aren't exactly used to Jewish neighbors celebrating Jewish holidays, speaking Yiddish, not necessarily wanting to attend church weekly and participate in the Christmas pageant. This one is a coming of age novel, Shoshana is struggling between wanting to be American [and just like her neighbors] and wanting to retain her own culture/religion.

My thoughts: I really loved this one so much. I loved the [North Dakota] prairie feel. I loved the family dynamics. I loved the one room school house. The historical vibes were just my cup of tea. I thought it was a lovely coming of age novel. I loved the role of music in this one! The ending was so perfect.

This book is JUST RIGHT for me. I don't know if other readers will love, love, love it as much as I do. But to me it was perfectly perfect. ( )

I received an advance copy via NetGalley.

A Sky Full of Song is a new classic for the middle grade genre, depicting a necessary viewpoint in the pioneer west: that of Jewish immigrants, fleeing pogroms in Ukraine. Shoshana's viewpoint depicts intense awe and love for her new home, love for her large family and cats, and fear of the racism and violence that caused them to flee their old home--only to find that the same darkness exists in America. This is the sort of deftly-done book that manages to be cozy and yet also horrible, because some truly terrible things happen, but those horrors are balanced by hope and love. The writing is lovely, too. The author channels Willa Cather in a wonderful way. ( )

In “A Sky Full of Song”, Susan Lynn Meyer has wonderfully captured the beauty of the North Dakota prairie. I have lived in North Dakota all my life, and while the landscape in places has changed dramatically since 1905 when the book takes place, many areas of North Dakota retain that allure. Ms. Meyers' descriptive phrases gave Shoshanna's new homeland a wonderful radiance that I loved.
Shoshanna and her family have to flee their homeland of Ukraine because of the Russian pogroms against Jews. Her father and older brother went to North Dakota a few years earlier to prepare a new home for the family and to raise money to bring the remaining five members to their new country. The story of their ship journey, Ellis Island, and the train ride to North Dakota are all similarly well-described.
Papa has built the family a house in true North Dakota tradition - a dugout. While the top of the home is above ground, the living quarters are dug into the ground to provide protection from the elements. Dugouts were also practical because trees for lumber on the prairie were scarce. The dugout is quite different than what the female family members were expecting. They set to work making it as homelike as possible. With their efforts and the great love of the family, it becomes a home as much as their home in Ukraine, just different.
Different is a keyword in this novel. There are very few Jews in the area, and none but Shoshanna and her sister at school. While Shoshanna picks up the new language more quickly than her older sister, she struggles with her identity and how to fit in with the other students.
"A Sky Full of Song" will draw comparisons to Laura Ingalls Wilder's books, among others, the descriptive quality of Ms. Meyers' writing, in my opinion, rises above that of Ms. Wilder. The description of the migration of the sandhill cranes alone, "a sky full of song", was an intoxicating read. This is a book that can be enjoyed by any age.
Thank you to NetGalley and Union Square Kids for the ARC of this book. ( )