On a spring morning, neighbors Valentina Kaplan and Oksana Savchenko wake up to an angry red sky. A reactor at the nuclear power plant where their fathers work - Chernobyl - has exploded. Before they know it, the two girls, who’ve always been enemies, find themselves on a train bound for Leningrad to stay with Valentina’s estranged grandmother, Rita Grigorievna. In their new lives in Leningrad, they begin to learn what it means to trust another person. Oksana must face the lies her parents told her all her life. Valentina must keep her grandmother’s secret, one that could put all their lives in danger. And both of them discover something they’ve wished for: a best friend. But how far would you go to save your best friend’s life? Would you risk your own? Told in alternating perspectives among three girls - Valentina and Oksana in 1986 and Rifka in 1941 - this story shows that hatred, intolerance, and oppression are no match for the power of true friendship.
Kids will love this hilarious fairy tale adventure packed with clever twists, familiar characters and page-turning fun.
The second book in a fabulous new magical, middle-grade series filled with adventure, wonder and wildness,
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Anne Blankman was born in upstate New York and studied at Union College, during which time she did an exchange in York, England - a place she's always dreamed of returning to. She has since worked as a youth services librarian. The idea for her debut novel, Prisoner of Night and Fog, came to her after she learned about Hitler's beloved half niece
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