The lacunae in our family histories are often sites of deep pain. When our elders refuse to tell us their stories, we are left not only with large gaps in our understandings of the contexts of our lives but also with the echoes of the hurt they surely felt. While we might not want to or be able to get these stories from our loved ones, Rebecca Rose Mooradian’s picture book Rose By the Seashows us that these gaps can be filled by our own imaginations with beauty, compassion and art.
This picture book follows the young Dzovinar (which means “rose” in Armenian) as she and her sister escape the Armenian genocide of the early 20th century. Beginning with the shores of Lake Van where Dzovinar lives with her family, Myo Yim’s illustrations capture a scenic and quaint life before the Ottoman led extermination of the Armenian people. From the snowy white mountaintops to the warm morning hearth, this family’s placid life is disrupted by the sudden intrusion of heavily armed soldiers. The two sisters flee after they find their home ransacked, escaping into the black night. Though they find refuge with a kindly Turkish mother, they are forced to continue their journey, first to Marseilles and eventually to the United States. Settling in the Delray neighborhood of Detroit, the two sisters find themselves in a bleak brown and beige apartment. Having found solace in the many beautiful colors of their journey, the sisters paint their apartment to remind them of home: Their kitchen becomes blue for the waters of Lake Van, their bedroom green for the plants of its shores, and the front door red for the flowers of their mother.
Yim’s illustrations give this picture book a deeply felt soul, acknowledging trauma alongside other moments that are resplendent. As Mooradian notes in her author’s note, the basis for this story is her own great-grandmother’s experience of the unspeakable tragedy of the Armenian genocide. Although her great-grandmother never spoke of the events of the genocide, Mooradian imagined this story as an expression of intergenerational pain. Although Rose by the Sea deals with heavy topics, its ability to revel in beauty and humanity is poignant and often breathtaking.