by Andrea Simon

"Meet Andrea Simon" — Bold Journey Magazine

“Using a creative, but heart-wrenching technique, Simon assumes the persona of Esfir and bears witness for her, in a history that includes Simon’s actual relatives from the same area. Through the author’s careful research, this story of the Holocaust from the viewpoint of a young girl in a community of Polish Jews comes to life. Esfir is Alive is a meaningful read for both adolescent and adult scholars of the Holocaust.” — Shawn LaTorre, Reviewer, Story Circle Book Reviews

On the Jewish Women’s Archive Reader Recommendation List.

“Esfir Is Alive is a powerful work—haunting, grave, compelling and terribly evocative. Esfir’s account of her journey toward adulthood, set against the events of WWII in the area now known as Belarus, is real and heartbreaking. The novel is full of vivid and quirky characters the reader cares about. The story is grounded in wonderful specificities about the characters’ lives. As a result, you completely believe in these people and weep over the tragedy that befalls them. Like The Diary of Anne Frank, and like all great literature, Esfir Is Alive is a story that conveys universality and truth.” — Katherine Kirkpatrick, author of Between Two Worlds and The Snow Baby

“Andrea Simon’s Esfir Is Alive will stay with me for a long time to come. Its poignant portrait of a young girl coming of age in a time of horror, is balanced with an authentic depiction of her everyday life in 1930s Poland, with a child’s dreams, concerns, fears and observations. Simon skillfully weaves in the backdrop of political, social and religious conditions, deepening the readers understanding of the complex nightmare that Esfir survives. Weaving a true story into gripping historical fiction is a skill, and Andrea Simon has mastered it.” — Barbara Stark-Nemon, author of Even in Darkness

A Cool & New read for November 2016 on teenreads.com.

“Never didactic, Simon’s characters—the charismatic Aunt Perl, astute Ida, and unprejudiced Ania—are refreshingly complex, and the prose, whether depicting a beloved doll or coffinlike cattle cars, remains unflinching and precise. Though its scope is ambitious (a span of approximately 16 years), this story, like Esfir herself, is achingly alive. An appended Yiddish glossary and discussion questions further enhance the text.” — Briana Shemroske, Booklist

“[Readers] will stay rooted in the everyday triumphs and growing pains of the narrator’s development from little girl to young lady, all while becoming more familiar with the facets of pre-Holocaust existence not often taught in class.” — School Library Journal

“Telling the story through the eyes of a child brings an incredible sensibility to the story, and makes the horrid reality of the Holocaust understandable for anyone to see.” — Rachel De Paz, Review, teenreads.com

“A personal story for Andrea Simon, who can trace her ancestry to near Esfir’s quaint but war-torn Belorussian village, there is heartbreak and hope, along with the determination that those lost will never be forgotten.” — Foreword Reviews

“This novel admirably and passionately attempts to reconstruct the lost world of pre-war Jewish Poland and the experiences of real-life survivor Esfir Manevich.” — AJL Reviews

“Told in the first person, the majority of the book takes place before the family is forced into the ghetto, and vivid details give an absorbing picture of Jewish life in Polish towns in the late ’30s. Some of the minor characters were drawn from the author’s own family . . . . I was glad to learn about a facet of the Shoah I knew little about.” — B.J. Sedlock, Historical Novel Society

“Simon has created a three-dimensional tragic heroine who herself is spared, but who stands for all the others who perished.” — Reviewed by Helen Schary Motro, Esra Magazine

“Once again Andrea Simon has given us a work of power and poignancy as she narrates the story of a young girl caught up in turmoil of pre-war Poland and then in the dual occupations of the Soviet Union and of Nazi Germany. Her writing is crisp and moving. Her grasp of history is assured and her sensitivity to the historical turmoil as experienced by a young girl is pronounced. Enter this world of darkness, grief and loss with young Esfir and you will experience the depth of evil and the travails of human endurance. The power with which  Andrea Simon brings Esfir and her era back to life will only magnify your sense of loss for the world that was and the people who were murdered  in the Shoah.” — Michael Berenbaum, Director, Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust and Professor of Jewish Studies, American Jewish University, Los Angeles, California; former President of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation