Title: The Blackbird Girls
Author: Anne Blankman
Publisher: Viking 2020
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Pages: 345
Rating: 5/5 stars
Reading Challenges: Spring TBR
On a spring morning, neighbors Valentina Kaplan and Oksana Savchenko wake up to an angry red sky. A reactor at the nuclear power plant where their fathers work--Chernobyl--has exploded. Before they know it, the two girls, who've always been enemies, find themselves on a train bound for Leningrad to stay with Valentina's estranged grandmother, Rita Grigorievna. In their new lives in Leningrad, they begin to learn what it means to trust another person. Oksana must face the lies her parents told her all her life. Valentina must keep her grandmother's secret, one that could put all their lives in danger. And both of them discover something they've wished for: a best friend. But how far would you go to save your best friend's life? Would you risk your own?
Told in alternating perspectives among three girls--Valentina and Oksana in 1986 and Rifka in 1941--this story shows that hatred, intolerance, and oppression are no match for the power of true friendship.
Another middle grade March selection that was really fantastic. I really enjoyed this beautiful tale of survival and friendship. Right away we are thrust into a difficult situation for both Oksana and Valentina and follow them as they grow more and more independent in their thinking and lives. I loved to see the interaction between the girls as they create a bond of friendship. The Soviet Union of the 1980s is not an era that I know much about but I feel like I learned so much through their eyes. We will definitely have to revisit this one when we get to that era in our history study.
Next up on the TBR pile:
