It took 60 pages to get into it, but then I could not put it down. So many rich layers and important, beautiful messages. ( )

* I got this book for review from the publisher*

I simply loved this book. Again this book tackled a time period that I was not the familar with. I thought this was such a good read that not only opened my mind about time period chernoable power plant explosion and follows two young girls who fathers were works at that power plant. I loved the duel POV and also the focus on friendship, predjuices, finding your own family and hints of adventure that keep you guessing, I love books that are focused on found family and this book really made me emotional and found it prefect listen! ( )

* I got this book for review from the publisher*

I simply loved this book. Again this book tackled a time period that I was not the familar with. I thought this was such a good read that not only opened my mind about time period chernoable power plant explosion and follows two young girls who fathers were works at that power plant. I loved the duel POV and also the focus on friendship, predjuices, finding your own family and hints of adventure that keep you guessing, I love books that are focused on found family and this book really made me emotional and found it prefect listen! ( )

In April 1986 in Ukraine, Valentina and Oksana are classmates and only children who each live with their parents; both of their fathers work at the nuclear power station, and don't come home the morning of the fire. The Communist government does not immediately evacuate Pripyat, but Oksana and Valentina leave with Valentina's mother. When there is a shortage of train tickets, she sends them on to her own mother in Leningrad. There, the girls wait for news of their families, and Oksana, whose father died in the explosion and who was abusive, learns to reevaluate what he told her, begin to think for herself, and understand what love can look like - even though Valentina's family is Jewish, and Oksana's father always told her that Jews are cheats and liars and hiding secret wealth. When Oksana realizes he was wrong about that, she wonders if he was wrong about other things, too.

Valentina's grandmother Rifka's story of escaping the Germans during WWII is included, as well: her mother sent her away to save her life, and when Rifka returned after the war, she learned that her whole family had been murdered at Babi Yar. Rifka started over in Leningrad, always keeping in touch with the Uzbek family who sheltered her during the war - and this friendship saves Oksana also.

See also: When the World Was Ours by Liz Kessler (YA), everything by Ruta Sepetys (YA)

Quotes

"But it's easier for people like us to doubt."
"People like us?"
"Jews," her mother said softly. (53)

"Communism is supposed to be paradise. And there aren't mistakes in paradise. The explosion at the power station was a mistake. Our government can't admit to the world that we're responsible for an accident. They're trying to cover it up." (55)

[The government] had been wrong, Valentina thought. And now Papa was sick. Anger rose within her, so red and hot that she had to sit up to catch her breath. (86)

She mustn't sound as though she were saying anything bad about the government. (107)

Kommunalkas weren't only uncomfortable and overcrowded, she realized with a shiver. They could be dangerous. (127)

"So much has been lost in only a few generations," [Babulya] murmured to herself. (168)

"I wish I could tell you that someday when you become a grown-up, other people's opinions magically stop mattering to you. But I can't." (198)

[Oksana] didn't understand how he could have been both wonderful and terrible. Why couldn't he have been one or the other? Then she would have been able to love or hate him. (212)

"The people we love are never lost to us. Your father will never leave you, not truly. His actions will echo in your life and in the lives of your children and in the lives of your children's children." (Babulya to Valentina, 244)

She thought having a best friend was like being given a new set of lungs when you had been gasping for air. (251)

God gave us free will,. Those were the words her mother had said to her....That means, her mother had said many times, that we have the power to do terrible evil or great good.
Tears flooded her eyes. God hadn't murdered her family....People had killed. Not God. (259)

She was a knot in a rope that stretched back for centuries. (280) ( )

Unusual historical setting- Ukraine & Russia during the Chernobyl disaster -told through the experiences of two 5th gr girls & their families who lived in the town next to yr nuclear facility. ( )