Ukraine

The Blackbird Girls

Sophie Rosen , , , , , ,

Blankman, Anne. The Blackbird Girls. New York: Viking, 2020.
Valentina and Oksana live in the specially built city of Pripyat, home to workers at the Chernobyl nuclear plant. They are classmates but not friends. Valentina is Jewish and the target of bullying. Initially, it seems that Oksana has a better life but all is not as it appears on the surface. When the reactor at the plant explodes, the girls and their mothers are abruptly evacuated. The girls escape to far-away Leningrad to live with Valentina’s grandmother, where secrets are slowly revealed and the girls learn whom they can trust. A complex yet hopeful novel, told from alternating points of view and based on historical events of both 1986 and the 1940s, highly recommended for readers 11 years old and up. 

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A Boy Is Not a Bird

Sophie Rosen , , ,

Ravel, Edeet. A Boy Is Not a Bird. Toronto: House of Anansi Press/Groundwood Books, 2019.
Eleven-year-old Natt’s comfortable life comes to an end when Russian soldiers invade his eastern European town during the summer of 1940. Hebrew schools are closed. Markets are shut down. Homes are confiscated. At first, Natt tries to cheerfully adjust to the Soviet occupation. But his perspective changes when food becomes scarce, his father is arrested, and he and his mother are put on a cattle train headed for Siberia. He recalls his father’s words: During a war, every day you can stay alive, you are a hero. Based on the true story of the author’s fifth grade teacher, this vivid 221-page novel is highly recommended for mature readers 11 years old and up.

P.S. Readers of Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin may wish to compare how the two main characters – Natt and Sasha – both stop admiring Stalin after their fathers are inexplicably arrested.

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More stories by Canadian writers

The War Below

Sophie Rosen , ,

Skrypuch, Marsha Forchuk. The War Below. New York : Scholastic Press, [2020].
Luka – having escaped from a  Nazi labour camp and on the run – desperately wants to return to his home in Kyiv, Ukraine. Hiding in a forest, he meets Martina, also on the run from Soviet and Nazi soldiers. Based on actual events, this fast-moving 240-page novel – originally published as Underground Soldier in 2014 – tells the story of how two young people become involved with the Ukrainian Insurgent Army fighting for Ukraine’s independence in 1943. Readers 11-years-old and up who are interested in learning more about Ukraine and its history will be amazed at all the details in this novel by an acclaimed Ukrainian Canadian writer.

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Another novel set in Ukraine

Surviving the winter…

Sophie Rosen , , , , ,

Kerr, Philip. The Winter Horses. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014.
Kalinka, a Jewish orphan girl, hides from Nazi soldiers during the winter of 1941. On the wind-blown plains of the Ukraine, she meets an elderly man and two wild horses who help her flee from danger. This fascinating story of the rare Przewalski horses will intrigue readers who enjoy historical fiction. While the novel is somewhat awkwardly written – as if the author is explaining the story rather than letting it come to life – it nevertheless provides a unique perspective on World War 2 and so is recommended for readers 11 to 16 years of age.

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