Jennifer Roy shares her art
A story of survival against all odds in the Lodz ghetto is told in the voice of a child


GUILDERLAND — "In 1939, the Germans invaded the town of Lodz, Poland," says the prologue to Jennifer Roy’s book. "They forced all of the Jewish people to live in a small part of the city called a ghetto....
"In 1945, the war ended. The Germans surrendered, and the ghetto was liberated. Out of more than a quarter of a million people, only about 800 walked out of the ghetto. Of those who survived, only twelve were children.
"I was one of the twelve."

Those words were spoken by Sylvia Perlmutter, Roy’s aunt.

Now in her seventies, Perlmutter, who lives in Maryland, began sharing her story with her niece, an author living in upstate New York. Roy spent hours talking to her aunt by telephone and tape-recorded the interviews.

Then, over the course of a year, she wrote her story in a book called Yellow Star.

Last week, Roy talked to students at Farnsworth Middle School about how she wrote the book. She was especially struck by one of her aunt’s stories.

As Nazi soldiers systematically scour the ghetto to take all the Jewish children, Syvia, as she is called before coming to America, waits with her family — her Papa, her Mother, and her sister, Dora, who is old enough to work and pass for an adult.

When they hear the Nazis coming, Syvia’s father runs with her to the graveyard, where they hide.
"When she told me the story, I said, ‘Holy cow! This is where I should start the book," Roy told the roomful of attentive students.
Roy started writing the book in the third person: "Papa," Syvia cried, "the Nazis will take me...."
"I thought, this is so boring," said Roy. "So I re-wrote it from Syvia’s point of view: ‘I fell over the wall and landed hard.’ That’s better, but still not right."
Roy told her rapt audience about writing: "It’s not perfect the first time."
She went on, "So I tried free verse. I’m not a poet, but it felt right, so I tried it....Free verse — it’s a story; it doesn’t rhyme. Just listen to the sounds of the words, the rhythm of the phrases. Just feel how it makes you feel:

First Papa lifts me up
and over.
Thud! I land on my hands and knees
on hard dirt.
Papa climbs over
and jumps to the ground.

This way, this way.
Hurry, hurry.

Papa picks me up and takes my hand again,
and we start running.
It is nighttime,
but the moon is shining.
There is just enough light to see
the rows of light-colored gravestones.
"It just flowed out of me, onto the paper," Roy told the Farnsworth students. "Then I realized, that’s not the beginning of the book. I will write it from when she was a little girl."

And so the story begins in the fall of 1939, when Syvia is four-and-a-half years old, in her parents’ parlor at tea time.It describes, all in Syvia’s voice, how she must wear a yellow Star of David on her beloved orange coat to identify herself as a Jew: "I wish I could rip the star off (carefully, stitch by stitch, so as not to ruin my lovely coat), because yellow is meant to be a happy color, not the color of hate."

Roy, who has written more that 30 books for children and young adults, including a series on how to write, told the students about the similes and metaphors she used in the book and the symbols that tie it together.

The central symbol is that in the book’s title — Yellow Star.
"The symbol changes in the book," said Roy.

Near the end, most of the ghetto’s residents have been killed or shipped off to death camps, and only a dozen children remain, hiding in a cellar.

In 1945, nearly six years after she came to the ghetto, Syvia is almost 10 and the ghetto is being bombed. Survivors crawl out from their hiding places, away from collapsing buildings, and gather in the snow in an open courtyard. They declare it a miracle that they are not bombed.

Then, Papa returns from talking to one of the Russian soldiers who liberated the ghetto:
"‘I have a wonderful story to tell you!’ Papa announces. People gather around Papa to listen.
"‘That Russian soldier is a major, the leader of his men. And, yes, he is Jewish. He was actually up in one of the planes dropping bombs on the ghetto.
"‘He had orders so demolish the whole ghetto, and he and his men were doing so, when he flew over the courtyard. And guess what" The spotlight on his plane shone down and he saw...’
"Papa pauses. We all lean in to hear more.
"‘He saw our yellow stars!’ Papa says. ‘Our Stars of David glowed in the spotlight! He immediately ordered his soldiers to avoid bombing that area. Then he flew down to rescue us!’"
"So," Roy told the Farnsworth students, "the yellow star ended up saving their lives."

Lively exchange

The Farnsworth students had more questions for Roy than she had time to answer. (She spent five days at the school, in a PTA-supported event, lecturing classes and meeting with small groups of student writers.)

Roy showed the first group of students a picture of Sylvia Perlmutter, now 72, at her grandson’s bar mitzvah.

A student asked what Perlmutter had thought of the book.
"I sent it to her before it was published," said Roy. "It was too emotional; she couldn’t read it. After it came out, she said, ‘Jennifer, I loved the book. You understand me. The best part of the book was you brought my friends alive." Syvia’s two playmates, Hava and Itka, had been dead for years, killed by the Nazis.
Roy showed a picture of her own five-year-old son, Adam, doing martial arts. "He’s not allowed to read the book yet; he does know there is a family story," Roy said.
Roy also showed the 11- and 12-year-olds a picture of herself at their age. "See my big hair and little preppy bow"" Roy asked. "Did I know I was going to grow up to be a writer"" she asked, answering herself by shaking her head, no. "I wanted to be a guidance counselor. But I wrote and wrote and wrote."
"Why did you chose to write about this"" a student asked.
"I didn’t want to write about this at all," answered Roy. "The last thing I ever wanted to write about was the Holocaust. It scared me.
"But, listening to my aunt, I thought, ‘This has to be told. If I don’t do it, who will"’"
"What would you change in the book"" asked another student.
"I don’t think I would change anything about Aunt Sylvia," replied Roy.
"Did you have trouble writing the book"" Roy was asked.
"I have trouble writing every book," she said. "Some parts, I got stuck, but you keep going...By the end of the book, I’d say, ‘Syvia is still in the cellar. I have to get her out.’"
"Was it hard to get it published"" asked a student.
"A large publishing company said, ‘We love it but we don’t want it all in free verse.’...I went to a smaller publisher," she said, and, within two months, she had a deal with Marshall Cavendish.
Asked about her other books, Roy described her "You Can Write" series and her math series as "cute and interesting." She also mentioned her book, Israel: Discovering Cultures, and a teen book on romantic breakups.
"This was my first novel, and what I really wanted to do," she said of Yellow Star.
"Was it hard going on from the topic of the Holocaust"" Roy was asked.
"Yes, very hard. I didn’t write anything for a year," said Roy. "I’ve got two novels coming, but they’re lighter, happier novels."

She is writing a book with her twin sister, Julia DeVillers, also an author.

DeVillers’s teen book has been made into a Disney movie, Read It and Weep. A buzz filled the air as the students excitedly discussed this news.

DeVillers and her 10-year-old daughter visited the set and ended up in the movie, said Roy, to appreciative ohhs and ahhs.
"They hung out with all the stars; they were totally nice," reported Roy.
"Are you jealous your sister got to be in a movie"" Roy was asked.
"There is no jealousy," she answered. "It’s so hard to be published, we cheer each other on. I’m happy for her."
But, despite her sister’s brush with fame and the "ton of awards" her Yellow Star has won, Roy said, "Both of us agree none of this stuff is important. We took what was in our heads and put it down on paper. That’s what matters.
"I took my family history and put it in a book."