conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me a description for a book titled What the Night Sings about Gerta, Jewish, Jews with the genre: Teen & Young Adult, Literature & Fiction.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Gr 7 UpFifteen-year-old Gerta Rausch did not know she was Jewish until the day she was picked up by the Nazis and taken to a concentration camp. She lived in Germany with her musician father and was sheltered from the reality outside her home, spending all of her time training in viola and opera. Gerta's father reveals the truth as they are crammed into a train car. Gerta struggles to accept this news; she knows nothing of Jewish traditions and her only experience with her religion is tied up with hatred, abuse, and slaughter. Being allowed to play in orchestras keeps her alive in both Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. Although the narrative describes life before liberation, much of it focuses on the postwar experience: life in concentration campsturned"displaced persons camps," lingering hostility toward Jews, as well as the grueling journey many Jews made from Europe to Palestine. The illustration style and muted color palette work beautifully with the text, managing to communicate both despair and hope. The narrative is spare but powerful as it depicts the daily horrors of the camps and the struggle to survive, hold on to humanity and, once freed, understand how to live again. VERDICT This powerful story is an excellent choice for any library.Carla Riemer, Claremont Middle School, Oakland
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me the first five paragraphs for this book.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: What the Night Sings
  I'm finally warming up under the covers, so I kick off my shoes. I unwrap the potato from its wax paper, and it steams its lovely, earthy smell under my nose. I keep a little packet of salt in a shoebox under my bed, and I pinch a bit onto the potato and keep reading.
  The potato is dry and mealy in my mouth. I desperately need water. Opening my window, I gather some early snow in a cup and chew on it.
  Teams of people are in and out of the camp every day. There are groups of men and women walking through with Red Cross armbands. Chaplains visit, too, trying to comfort the hysterical, whose bellies are at last full enough to allow their emotions to surface.
  The chaplains have been trying to reunite survivors, a fruitless effort most of the time. Sometimes they will stand and say Kaddish with those who can muster it. They have religious items for those eager to get back to their old ways. Mostly, though, the chaplains simply sit next to people in silence.
  We've been here much longer than we hoped or expected. The British tightly control who leaves and where they relocate. There's a lot of chatter about Palestine, about relatives in America. Almost no one seems to discuss the possibility of going back to their own homes.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Add another sentence about Plenty, screaming.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: What the Night Sings
  I'm finally warming up under the covers, so I kick off my shoes. I unwrap the potato from its wax paper, and it steams its lovely, earthy smell under my nose. I keep a little packet of salt in a shoebox under my bed, and I pinch a bit onto the potato and keep reading. 
  The potato is dry and mealy in my mouth. I desperately need water. Opening my window, I gather some early snow in a cup and chew on it. 
  Teams of people are in and out of the camp every day. There are groups of men and women walking through with Red Cross armbands. Chaplains visit, too, trying to comfort the hysterical, whose bellies are at last full enough to allow their emotions to surface. Plenty of people have lost themselves completely; as long as they live, they will never stop screaming unless someone holds them very, very tightly. 
  The chaplains have been trying to reunite survivors, a fruitless effort most of the time. Sometimes they will stand and say Kaddish with those who can muster it. They have religious items for those eager to get back to their old ways. Mostly, though, the chaplains simply sit next to people in silence. 
  We've been here much longer than we hoped or expected. The British tightly control who leaves and where they relocate. There's a lot of chatter about Palestine, about relatives in America. Almost no one seems to discuss the possibility of going back to their own homes.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me four more paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The picture in my head, for three years now, has been this: her watching us being marched to the end of the street, spinning on her heel back into the house, closing and locking the door. Maybe she had a glass of wine, took our photographs off the mantel, listened to a record of Gershwin before taking off her dressing gown and getting back into her feather-and-down bed, shedding nary a tear, moving on to the next unattached man, the next starstruck little girl.
  Maria and me dancing together, singing the melody to Bach's "Wachet auf" chorale while Papa plays the motif.
  Lying with Maria under her pillowy comforter patterned with red and pink roses, her unpinned hair falling over me while I recover from a nightmare.
  Standing onstage in the empty concert hall in Würzburg, learning how to tease the loudest voice out of my belly while Maria stands in the back row of the balcony. "More!" she demands. "Make me weep from a hundred kilometers away!"
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me the last five paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: My mother and stepfather, Eileen and Richard Braun, gave me the gifts of a Jewish upbringing, intellectual rigor, and early independence. My grandfather Ronald Young and grandmother Marge Young took me seriously when I said I would be an artist, and plunged headlong into that life with me. God placed me in just the right family, and I'm grateful.
  Renate Evers at the Leo Baeck Institute, Center for Jewish History, led me in my research and was a compassionate help to me as I started the project. Dr. R. Steven Notley guided my grasp of the history of the modern state of Israel and its unique dynamics. Katja Seybold and Klaus Tätzler at the Bergen-Belsen Memorial allowed me access to treasures and insights that could only be obtained in the place where these events happened.
  In addition to Elisha, Lea Fulton, John Mosloskie, and Suzanne Greene brought Gerta and Lev (and other characters) to life through their modeling. Lea and John were especially fearless as they physically embodied the characters.
  Elena Berkovitz and Miriam Wolkenfeld Cohen survived against all odds to welcome their great-grandchildren into the world. They gave me their time, their trust, and their stories. Their lives continue to be miracles.
  Lastly, I must acknowledge the generation of Holocaust survivors we are losing to old age. Your courage to share your stories, to choose life, and to pass on hope is a treasure for the world. I pray I have listened well enough to present a worthy testimony to the next generation.