Written By: Jessica Bab Bonde, Illustrated by: Peter Bergting

Translation: Jessica Bab Bonde & Sunshine Barbito

Lettering: Kathryn Renta

ISBN: 978-1-50671-549-0

Publisher: Originally published in Sweden by Natur & Kultur, 2018, published in English by Dark Horse Books, 2020.

Buy it here.

We’ll Soon Be Home Again, is a graphic novel #ownvoices collection of stories of Holocaust survivors.

Their names are Tobias, Livia, Selma, Susanna, Emerich, and Elisabeth.

The illustrations in the book depict the sadness, despair and hurt experienced by the individuals in this book and help bring the story into context.

While the individual stories are devastatingly sad they also show the power of human resilience and having the courage and conviction to survive despite the circumstances.

We’ll Soon Be Home Again deals with a very difficult subject in an accesible manner. It serves as a good introduction to personal accounts of the Holocaust for middle grade readers. There are other learning tools such as a timeline of the events and a glossary of terms that were mentioned throughout the book. Despite the horrific experiences that all of these individuals experienced, they have dedicated their lives to sharing their stories and inspiring future generations to be brave.

Reviews:

Sydney Taylor Shmooze

Comics Beat

School Library Journal

Awards:

Swedish August Prize 2018 Nominee

Jessica Bab Bonde lives with her family in Stockholm.  She works as a literary agent and has many years of experience in publishing.

Peter Bergting is a comic artist from Stockholm, Sweden, who is best known in Sweden for his fantasy artwork, but he has also made notable contributions to US comics. He grew up reading popular European comics like ‘Lucky Luke’ and ‘Astérix.’ Artists like Mézières, Giraud, Eisner, Mignola and Alcala especially influenced his artwork.

Sunshine Barbito is the translator of We’ll Soon Be Home Again and is one of the authors and creators of Mafiosa.

Kathryn S. Renta is an award winning artist and recent immigrant to Colorado where she survived her first winter–virtually unscathed. She grew up in California with a vivid imagination and unquenchable curiosity. With an equally intense fear of blank pages, she set about to fill up every single one she could. That included sketchbooks, note books, journals, random bits of paper and the wall behind her childhood bed.

In addition to 15+years as a graphic artist and illustrator, her work includes over a decade of lettering comics for Viz media, Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics and several independent publishers.

Elisa A. Garcia is a Supervising Librarian of Teen Services at the New York Public Library. She is motivated to foster a love of reading in reluctant teen readers and therefore strives to introduce them to a diverse world and experiences through books. Mentoring new librarians, Elisa has savored the opportunity to broaden her scope in promoting diversity in librarianship by building on her love to help our communities and instilling in others the passion she has for libraries and readers as a whole