The Black Butterfly by Shirley Reva Vernick

'A powerfuland poignantreminder that no person can live freely until all people can live freely.' Lauren Myracle, author of Shine 'Vernick’s novel is a scathing indictment of anti-Semitismit is an important book that reminds us of the imperative need to remember lest we find ourselves repeating the horrors of the past.' Booklist But he doesn't realize exactly how stuck he is until Emaline's little sister Daisy goes missing and he and his family are accused of killing her for a blood sacrifice.īlood Lie was inspired by a real blood libel that took place when a small girl disappeared from Massena, New York, in 1928, and an innocent Jewish boy was called a murderer.

Yup, music is definitely his ticket out of this remote whistle-stop town-he doesn't want to be stuck here one more minute. And if she isn't on his mind, then he's thinking about his music and imagining himself playing the cello with the New York Philharmonic. It gives him lots of time to daydream about a beautiful but inaccessible Gentile girl named Emaline. If it wasn't Rosh Hashanah, then it was Yom Kippur, and if it wasn't Yom Kippur, it was the Sabbath. He's been restless lately, especially during this season of more-times-at-the-synagogue than you can shake a stick at.

Latent hostility against the Jews erupts in a blood lie when Daisy, a young Gentile girl, disappears in the woods. Sydney Taylor Book Award, Association of Jewish Libraries

Langum Prize for American Historical Fiction, Directors Mention, The Langum Foundation Skipping Stones Honor Award, Skipping Stones Magazine Once Upon a World Children's Book Award, Simon Wiesenthal Center/Museum of Tolerance Best Fiction for Young Adults, American Library Association (ALA)

The Black Butterfly by Shirley Reva Vernick