Traitor by Amanda McCrina
In 1944, the Polish city of Lwów has been liberated from Germany but is caught among the insurgent armies of several countries and its resistance fighter; in this city, loyalty comes second to self-preservation. In order to eat, Tolya joins the Red Army but is rescued by Ukrainian freedom fighters after he murders a Soviet officer in the street. That doesn’t mean he trusts them, though.
Holodomor: The Ukrainian Famine-Genocide by Philip Wolny
One of the lesser-known historical crimes that wiped out millions of people was Holodomor (loosely translated from Ukrainian as “death by hunger”), the famine and genocide that occurred during Soviet rule between 1932 and 1933. This book relates the shocking story of how a natural disaster was weaponized by the Soviet Union under the rule of Joseph Stalin to punish a whole people.
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina, her mother, and brother are pulled from their Lithuanian home by Soviet guards and sent to Siberia, where her father is sentenced to death in a prison camp while she fights for her life, vowing to honor her family and the thousands like hers by burying her story in a jar on Lithuanian soil.
I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
In a country governed by isolation, fear, and a tyrannical dictator, seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer, but he decides to use his position to try to outwit his handler, undermine the regime, give voice to fellow Romanians, and expose to the world what is happening in his country.
Beyond the Blue Border by Dorit Linke
Expelled from their secondary school in East Germany because of their rebellious attitudes, Hanna and Andreas plan to escape by swimming across the cold and choppy waters of the Baltic Sea in a harrowing twenty-five hour journey to freedom in West Germany. Hanna is an accomplished distance swimmer, Andreas is not, and the danger of being caught, drowning, or dying of exhaustion is very real– but the two teenagers are desperate to escape their lives in the East.
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sis
Peter Sis’s story of growing up under a totalitarian regime proves that creativity can be discouraged but not easily killed, and that the desire to be free came naturally to a generation of young people behind the Iron Curtain.
Skywatchers by Carrie Arcos
The year is 1952. The threat of invasion from the Soviet Union has people in a panic. The government has issued a call to civilians to act as radar–and Teddy, John, Caroline, Eleanor, Bunny, Frank, and Oscar eagerly answer. As members of their high school’s “Operation Skywatch” club, they, along with others across the country, look to the sky in an effort to protect the country from attack.
The Great Destroyers by Caroline Tung Richmond
Jo Linden lives in a world where there are no atomic weapons. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union is played out in the Pax Games, fought with powerful robotic mecha war machines operated by young pilots. Jo needs the prize money to save her father’s mecha repair shop, and keep what is left of her family together. When competing pilots start dying from poisoning, Jo finds herself caught up in Cold War politics and political conspiracy. She discovers that it is not only her family’s survival at stake–she may have to prevent World War III.
A Time of Fear: American in the Era of Red Scares and Cold War by Albert Marrin
In twentieth-century America, no power–and no threat–loomed larger than the Communist superpower of the Soviet Union … Meanwhile, the Communist Party of the United States attempted to use deep economic and racial disparities in American society to recruit members and win over sympathizers. From the miscarriage of justice in the Scottsboro Boys case and the tragedy of the Rosenbergs to the theatrics of the Hollywood Ten and the menace of Joseph McCarthy, Albert Marrin examines a unique time in American history, and explores both how some Americans were lured by the ideals of communism without understanding its grim reality and how fear of Communist infiltration caused us to undermine our most cherished values.
Freedom Swimmer by Wai Chim
Ming survived the famine that killed his parents during China’s “Great Leap Forward”, and lives a hard but adequate life, working in the fields. When a group of city boys comes to the village as part of a Communist Party re-education program, Ming and his friends aren’t sure what to make of the new arrivals…But despite his reservations, Ming befriends a charming city boy called Li. The two couldn’t be more different, but slowly they form a bond over evening swims and shared dreams. But as the bitterness of life under the Party begins to take its toll on both boys, they begin to imagine the impossible: freedom.
The Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman
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?
T
he War Below by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Luka, a Ukrainian boy working in a slave labor camp, plays dead after an explosion at the factory and escapes, eventually joining a resistance group that opposes both the Nazis and the Soviets. Through the danger of the guerilla fighting he has two overriding goals–find out if his parents are still alive, and reunite with Lida, a girl who was a friend in the labor camp.
Voices From Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich
On April 26, 1986, the worst nuclear reactor accident in history occurred in Chernobyl and contaminated as much as three quarters of Europe. Voices from Chernobyl is the first book to present personal accounts of the tragedy. Journalist Svetlana Alexievich interviewed hundreds of people affected by the meltdown—from innocent citizens to firefighters to those called in to clean up the disaster—and their stories reveal the fear, anger, and uncertainty with which they still live.
The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner
In a remote village surrounded by vast forests on the border of Moldova and Ukraine, sisters Liba and Laya have been raised on the honeyed scent of their Mami’s babka and the low rumble of their Tati’s prayers. But when a troupe of mysterious men arrives, Laya falls under their spell–despite her mother’s warning to be wary of strangers. And this is not the only danger lurking in the woods. As dark forces close in on their village, Liba and Laya discover a family secret passed down through generations. Faced with a magical heritage they never knew existed, the sisters realize the old fairy tales are true…and could save them all.
A Boy is Not a Bird by Edeet Ravel
It’s 1941 and Natt knows there’s a war on, of course, but he’s glad their family didn’t emigrate to Canada when they had a chance. Then one day Natt goes home and finds his family huddled around the radio. The Russians are taking over. The soldiers are poor. They eat up all the food and they even take over Natt’s house. Then Natt’s father is arrested, and even Natt is detained and questioned. He feels like a nomad, sleeping at other people’s houses while his mother works to free his father. As the adults try to protect him from the reality of their situation, and local authorities begin to round up deportees bound for Siberia, Natt is filled with a sense of guilt and grief. Why wasn’t he brave enough to look up at the prison window when his mother took him to see his father for what might be the last time? Or can just getting through war be a heroic act in itself?