A boy describes love and devastating loss.In summer 1943, in Vilnius, Lithuania (identified as such in the backmatter), a Jewish boy named Eitan opens his narrative with an anecdote about flying his yellow kite with Rivka, his best friend and "the bravest girl in the whole world." He and Rivka wear yellow stars on their clothing; townsfolk wear the same. Eitan speaks of big black birds in his town that, in a frequently invoked metaphor, he compares to "men in black uniforms" who "built a wall and closed the gates." Nobody who entered "ever came home"-like his Papa. Sometimes, "whole families" passed through. One day Rivka's family is gone. Next, Eitan says, "it was our turn to walk through the gates." Darkness descends; years pass; Eitan sleeps and becomes a pebble. In a final scene, an old woman and her grandchild visit a cemetery, where the woman-subtly identified as Rivka-places the pebble on a grave because "his place is here, with his family." Translated from Lithuanian, this is a poignant allegory about the Holocaust, but some symbolism may elude children. Eitan's voice is matter-of-fact and dispassionate. Illustrations exude a folkloric feel; town scenes suggest enclosed spaces. Yellow and black represent Stars of David and horror, respectively. A moving epilogue discusses the Holocaust and explains why pebbles are placed on Jewish gravestones. (This book was reviewed digitally.)A somber and affecting Holocaust account, though the intended audience may find it a bit cryptic. (Picture book. 7-11)

In 1943, narrator Eitan and his best friend Rivka fly a kite from the roof of a house in a gated Jewish ghetto, where they’ve been imprisoned since Nazi forces arrived the previous spring, heralded by “big black birds.” Thin-lined editorial style art by Dagile˙, rendered in somber earth tones punctuated with startling swathes of black, show a community trying to carry on: “I could hear children laughing, dogs barking, and women chatting,” Marcinkevicˇius writes. But each individual wears a yellow Star of David, and after people are taken away—including Eitan’s father—“nobody ever came home.” While giving a violin concert, Eitan has a waking nightmare about a big black bird, a vision that presages the community’s destruction in a horrifying conflagration. After “everything went silent,” Eitan curls into a ball and becomes “smaller, harder, and smoother, like a pebble.” Years later, Rivka, the event’s only survivor, finds the pebble and leaves it at a memorial that she visits. The creators don’t mitigate the sadness of this sprawling story, but they do challenge readers to consider something equally profound: the blessings and obligations of memory. An end page shows the murdered community embodied as pebbles, and an epilogue describes the objects as “lasting symbols of endurance.” Pale-skinned characters frequently reflect the white of the page. Ages 6–8. (May)