White Bird: A Wonder Story

White Bird (2019) is author R.J. Palacio’s first graphic novel. Palacio’s debut middle-grade novel, Wonder, placed her on the New York Bestseller list in 2012. Since then, she has published other well-received companions to Wonder, including Auggie & Me (2015), which includes Sara Blum’s first appearance in “The Julian Chapter,” and White Bird.

White Bird features the story of Sara Blum—introduced as Julian’s grandmother in Palacio’s collection of stories, Auggie and Me—as a young, Jewish girl in Nazi-occupied France and the boy and his family who saved her life during those terrible times. Set in France during World War II, White Bird prefaces Sara’s story as a retelling to her grandson, Julian, in the Prologue.

The book is divided into three parts set between a Prologue and an Epilogue. Palacio sets the tone with aptly chosen lines of Muriel Rukeyser’s poetry to introduce each chapter. Rukeyser is an American poet, children’s author, and activist.

The historical context of the book leads it to exploring themes such as the importance of learning from the past, how kindness is a form of bravery, and the myriad ways in which the personal and the political can influence each other.

This guide is based on the 2020 Penguin Books paperback edition.

Plot Summary

In the year 2019, Julian FaceTimes his grandmother, Grandmère, for help on a humanities project: He wants to write an essay on her life as a Jewish girl in Nazi-occupied France. Although initially hesitant, Grandmère agrees, wanting the younger generations to learn from history.

In 1930s France, Grandmère is a young girl named Sara, the only daughter to parents Max and Rose Blum. The family lives a comfortable life in the village of Aubervilliers-aux-Bois, surrounded by the Mernuit forest. Sara and her parents picnic in the forest during spring when the bluebells are in bloom, avoiding the woods in winter as they are rumored to be inhabited by wolves. Sara enjoys school and is an excellent student in all subjects but math. She spends her math classes daydreaming and doodling in her sketchbook.

As France falls to Germany in 1940, Sara’s life begins to change. Anti-Jew laws that come into place cost Sara’s mother her job, and Sara and her family are banned from entering certain establishments. Sara herself faces her first personal experience with anti-Semitism when she is mocked for being a Jew by Vincent, one of the older boys at her school. This causes her parents to argue about leaving France; ultimately, on her mother’s insistence, the family decides to wait out the danger.

However, the very next day, things take a turn. The Nazis visit Sara’s school and ask for all the Jewish children to be brought out. The school’s director, Pastor Luc, has the children smuggled away to safety in the forest with the help of a maquisard, prior to the Nazis’ arrival; however, Vincent alerts the officers to this, and the children and the maquisard are found and brought back, the latter of whom is immediately shot dead. Sara, who stayed behind and did not go with the other children for fear of ruining her shoes in the snow, remains safe and in hiding, while the other children are taken away by the Nazis. The officers continue to search the school for more missing children.

Sara is saved before she is discovered by Julien, one of her classmates, who is cruelly nicknamed “Tourteau” (“crab”) and mocked by everyone, on account of his limp caused by childhood polio. Although Sara only spoke to him once before, Julien risks his own life to save hers, helping her escape the school through the sewers. Julien takes her to his own village, where his parents, Jean-Paul and Vivienne Beaumier, shelter her in their barn. Her first night in hiding, Sara dreams of her mother and intuits that she will never see her again. Rose is taken to Auschwitz, where she eventually dies.

Sara and the Beaumiers eventually become close. Sara cannot leave the barn, as the Beaumiers’ neighbors, the Lafleurs, are believed to be Nazi conspirators. Vivienne and Julien visit her every day, spending time with her and keeping her spirits high. Sara continues to daydream and doodle, settling into a routine.

One day, Julien, who is still attending school, chances upon Sara’s sketchbook in Pastor Luc’s office. He retrieves it to bring to Sara, attracting Vincent’s attention in the process. Vincent and his henchmen follow Julien home, and although Sara is not discovered, Vincent beats Julien up when he stands up to him. Humiliated at having had Sara witness this, Julien initially lashes out at her. The two eventually reconcile, their friendship stronger than ever.

More than a year passes, and Sara and Julien grow older and closer to each other. The Beaumiers celebrate Sara’s birthday in the barn, and at night Julien takes her on a walk to see the bluebells in bloom. The two confess their love for each other, and they kiss. Sara gives Julien her sketchbook, in which she poured out her heart’s desires, including her love for him.

The day after Sara’s birthday, Julien is arrested on the way to school on Vincent’s orders. Vincent collects Julien’s things which lie scattered on the street, chancing upon Sara’s sketchbook. He finds her in the barn, but she manages to escape to the forest, where a wolf attacks and kills Vincent. Finding Julien’s things and her sketchbook on Vincent’s body, Sara realizes what happened.

When Sara rushes back to the Beaumiers’ house to alert them, she discovers that the Lafleurs, too, have been hiding a Jewish family in their attic. It turns out that they aren’t Nazi sympathizers after all. Upon hearing the whole story from Sara, the Lafleurs attempt to help Vivienne find Julien; however, they are too late. Grouped with prisoners arrested from a mental hospital and being taken to a camp, the Nazis receive word enroute that the camp is full, and murder all the prisoners, including Julien.

Sara stays with the Beaumiers and the Lafleurs for the remainder of the war, eventually reuniting with her father after its conclusion. She remains close with the Beaumiers for the rest of her life, never forgetting their many kindnesses to her, even naming her son Julian, who in turn, gives his own son the same name.

In the Epilogue, Grandmère reminds Julian of the importance of speaking up against evil. The book concludes with Julian attending a protest against unfair migrant and refugee policies in the streets of New York.