Author: Ruta Sepetys
Publisher: Philomel Books
Publication Year: 2011
Pages: 344
Challenge: Debut Author
Source: LBHS Library
Summary from Good Reads:
Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.
Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously - and at great risk - documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.
My Thoughts:
WOW- blown away! This book by debut author Ruta Sepetys is incredible. As a former history teacher I love historical fiction and this historical fiction title is well written and deals with WWII in a very different way then so many other stories.
The main character is a Lithuanian girl who is deported by the Soviets during WWII. It was very interested to think about how the various events of WWII, such as Hitler's invansion of the Soviet Union and the US and the Soviet Union becoming allies, affected people like Lina. This story is horrifying and also inspirational. I highly recommend for anyone who enjoys historical fiction and I can't wait to suggest it to World History II students and teachers.
Check out the author's website:
http://www.betweenshadesofgray.com/
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