Black Bird, Blue Road by Sofiya Pasternack
Hi my name is Kire. I love to read, play volleyball and play my viola.
Black Bird, Blue Road is an interesting and slightly sad fiction novel by Sofiya Pasternack. The book follows Ziva and her twin brother, Pesah, who has some sort of disease that eats away at him slowly. This disease even causes Pesah’s fingers to fall off. Ziva is the only one who will go near him because everyone else in their family doesn’t want to get the disease.
When Pesah’s parents decide that he must be sent away so that he doesn’t pass the disease to everyone in his family, Ziva immediately begins trying to help her brother by figuring out a cure. Her cure ends up failing and their parents’ decision is final.
Ziva can’t bear to have her twin sent away so she decides to go on a journey with Pesah to find a doctor that can cure Pesah’s disease. They begin by taking their parents’ cart and heading off without telling anyone. Through this journey they meet a boy named Almas who ends up helping them later in the journey. They also face many challenges along the way such as facing the angel of death.
All in all, I enjoyed reading Black Bird, Blue Road, but at times I found it to be slow, and it was also a pretty sad story. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in learning about Judaism as this book seamlessly brings in aspects of the religion while telling an interesting story.
