Synopsis:

Thirteen-year-old Matthew is miserable. His journalist dad is stuck overseas indefinitely, and his mom has moved in his one-hundred-year-old great-grandmother to ride out the pandemic, adding to his stress and isolation.

But when Matthew finds a tattered black-and-white photo in his great-grandmother’s belongings, he discovers a clue to a hidden chapter of her past, one that will lead to a life-shattering family secret. Set in alternating timelines that connect the present-day to the 1930s and the US to the USSR, Katherine Marsh’s latest novel sheds fresh light on the Holodomor – the horrific famine that killed millions of Ukrainians, and which the Soviet government covered up for decades.

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What To Expect:

This middle grade historical fiction is a dual timeline, multiple POV that takes place in COVID 2020 and socialist Ukraine 1933. Readers can expect an inspirational story about human resiliency and learn about the Holodomor.

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Content Warnings:

Language: None

Sexual Content: None

Violence: Moderate – Shooting and general fear tactics

Substance Use: None

Prejudices: Heavy – Antisemitism, socialist prejudices, classism, xenophobia

Religious Themes: Some mention of Heaven, angst against God, church going in Orthodox Christianity

Other Topics: Moderate – Child death, genocide, starvation, covid time period/deaths

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