I’ve been hesitant to post this book, even though I thought it was very well done. I’m not sure every child could handle the content. I was reading Corrie Ten Boom books in sixth grade and gravitated toward honest portraits of history at a young age. But every child is different and I wanted to throw out this caveat – it might be too much for some. (For those who aren’t familiar – Corrie ten Boom and her family were sent to concentration camps during WWII, for hiding Jewish people in their home in the Netherlands.) This book IS great for adults, however. It’s a startling reminder of what can happen to a culture when horrible leaders take power.
Newbery Honor book, BREAKING STALIN’S NOSE is an intense middle grade novel that reads like a short screenplay and is threaded with the quirky pathos often found in Russian literature. I read reviews by some who didn’t appreciate the tight timeframe in which the story takes place or the unique way of pointing out absurdities in an oppressive regime. Having studied Soviet film history and a few glasnost-writers, I was already familiar with this style. I thought author-illustrator Eugene Yelchin did an incredible job telling a much needed story from a child’s perspective. His expressive illustrations enhance the cinematic feeling of the book. And his perspective carries weight – Yelchin left the Soviet Union and moved to the US. He writes from experience.
I pray for Ukrainians and Russians. I pray for peace.