betweenshadesof

__ Between Shades of Gray __ by Ruta Sepetys ISBN: 978-0-545-48656-9 ©2011 338 pages

Look at the beginning of the book where there is a map and timeline to show the distance this family traveled – after reading the book, it is quite moving pp. 3-5 when Lina and her family were told to get their belongings and go pp. 25-27 shows the nature in which the soldiers who were herding them like cattle into train cars treated them
 * Good sections to read aloud: **

Our main character, Lina, is 15 years old when she is taken with her mother and brother by the Soviets. It’s 1941, and Joseph Stalin has set out to basically erase the countries and inhabitants of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. His mission is accomplished, and Lina’s family is just one of millions that are killed, separated, or worked to death over the course of the next 14 years. Ruth Sepetys has penned an incredible first novel. Although fictional, the facts are enough to bring you tears chapter after chapter. Lina didn’t really exist, but there were a lot of ‘Lina’s’ over the course of Stalin’s leadership…most didn’t survive. Those who did suffered tremendously. If you’re like me, you don’t know a lot about this time in history. People focus more on Hitler, but Stalin was just as malicious.
 * Summary: **

YA fiction: historical fiction; Joseph Stalin; Lithuania; work camps; genocide; Soviet


 * ©Jennifer Lang - WDMS – 2013 **