A stunningly rendered graphic adaptation that will introduce new readers to this important chapter in history.
A graphic novel treatment of Sepetys’ acclaimed Between Shades of Gray (2011) illuminates the story of a teenage Lithuanian girl’s imprisonment in a Siberian labor camp.
In 1941, 15-year-old Lina is deported, along with her mother and young brother, by the Soviet forces occupying her home country of Lithuania. They endure a grueling six-week train journey, unaware of their destination or the whereabouts of Lina’s father, who disappeared prior to their arrest. Once they reach Siberia, they are sold into a sentence of 25 years of hard labor and forced to sign a document saying that they committed crimes against the Soviet Union. The harsh struggles that Lina and her fellow countrymen face as Soviet prisoners are poignantly depicted in the graphic novel format, which utilizes spare, poetic language to throw into stark relief the images depicting the physical and emotional abuses they are forced to endure. Throughout these hardships, Lina holds onto hope that she and her family will survive to be reunited with her father; in the meantime, she documents her heartbreaking experiences through her drawing. Like Lina’s art, the stirring, watercolorlike illustrations serve as an evocative medium for relaying both the horrors of her experience and the sublime resilience of the human spirit.
A stunningly rendered graphic adaptation that will introduce new readers to this important chapter in history. (author's note) (Graphic historical fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-20416-0
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
Another soaring success.
Wein returns with another emotional flight through World War II, this time in Scotland.
Three young people’s lives intersect in a remote Scottish village, their bond cemented by the unexpected receipt of the first Enigma machine to reach Allied hands. Characters who appear here from earlier volumes include: volunteer Ellen McEwen, respected by others who don’t know she’s a Traveller; flight leader Jamie Beaufort-Stuart, alive but with a flight log of dead friends; and 15-year-old biracial Jamaican English orphan Louisa Adair, employed (by phone, without disclosing her skin color) to care for an elderly but fierce German woman. All of them are bound by a sense of helplessness and a desire to make a difference; Wein shines at exploring the tension between the horrors of war and its unexpected pleasures, many thanks to friendships that could only exist during a time of upheaval. In many ways a small story about big things—fitting in a novel thematically focused on the ways individuals matter—this is historical fiction at its finest, casting a light on history (with some minor liberties, noted in the extensive backmatter) as well as raising questions still relevant today, particularly around class and race, nationality and belonging; unexpected connections across those gulfs lead to moments of love and heartbreak for readers and characters alike.
Another soaring success. (author’s note, resources) (Historical fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-368-01258-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion/LBYR
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
Energetic, clever, and absorbing.
Ada Lovelace and Mary Godwin—better known today as Mary Shelley—combine forces to create a living automaton: a real boy.
It’s the year “18—mumble mumble,” the timeline smooshed together into an imagined year when both girls are in their late teens. Ada, the abandoned daughter of famous poet Lord Byron, is a mathematical genius who creates delicate clockwork automatons. Mary’s the daughter of the late, famed early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. She’s half in love with poet Percy Shelley, her father’s mentee, and wonders if she’ll ever succeed at writing. The girls become friends when their fae godmother arrives through a hidden door in the back of Mary’s wardrobe to school them both on powers they may have inherited. Lo and behold, with Mary’s help, Ada’s automaton becomes a living—and lovely—boy named Pan. When villains want something from the girls, they take off, along with Pan and Mary’s two half sisters, on a romp through Europe. The trio of authors responsible for this entertaining smashup series get better with every book they write. Readers don’t have to know the characters’ real-life backstories to enjoy this story; for those who do, the parallels are intriguing. The novel effortlessly and entertainingly combines “Cinderella,” Frankenstein, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pinocchio, and Hamilton, and the ending reminds readers not to underestimate quiet women.
Energetic, clever, and absorbing. (Historical fantasy. 12-18)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-293007-1
Page Count: 496
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
