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Gr 8 Up—In 1939 Krakow, seven-year-old Anna realizes her linguist father is not coming back from a meeting of university professors who have been summoned by the Gestapo. She can speak many languages and converse with adults, and she's able to adapt to her surroundings as Anja, Khannaleh, Anke, or whichever persona she chooses. Her father's friend, Herr Doktor Fuchsmann, becomes fearful about hiding her, so she takes to the streets, following a tall man with a doctor's bag who talks to birds. The Swallow Man's name is never learned, but t...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

In 1939 Krakow, Poland, seven-year-old Anna is left orphaned after her father, a linguistics professor, is taken by the Nazis. Confused and frightened, but pragmatic, she follows a mysterious man, "tall and exceedingly thin" -- whom she meets on the street and who seems to have the power to communicate with birds -- out of the city and toward an unknown destination. As they walk, and as days become months, then years, the Swallow Man teaches Anna life lessons and survival skills in the form of aphorisms ("Ask...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

In 1939 Kraków, Poland, orphaned seven-year-old Anna follows a mysterious man, who seems to communicate with birds, out of the city;...Log In or Sign Up to Read More