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    The Blackbird Girls
    The Blackbird Girls
    The Blackbird Girls
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Blackbird Girls

    Written by Anne Blankman

    Narrated by Kathleen Gati and Natasha Soudek

    4.5/5

    ()

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    About this audiobook

    NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD WINNER
    A SYDNEY TAYLOR MIDDLE GRADE HONOR BOOK
     
    Like Ruta Sepetys for middle grade, Anne Blankman pens a poignant and timeless story of friendship that twines together moments in underexplored history.

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
    Release dateMar 10, 2020
    ISBN9780593155639
    Author

    Anne Blankman

    Anne Blankman is the acclaimed author of Prisoner of Night and Fog, which received a starred review and a Flying Start from Publishers Weekly. When Anne was twelve, she read Anne Frank's diary and has been haunted by World War II ever since. The idea for Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke came to her after she read about a real-life unsolved street assassination from January 1933, which was the inspiration for Monika Junge's murder. To research this book, she studied a wide range of sources, including biographies, memoirs, social histories, psychological profiles, old maps, photographs, and video footage. Anne lives in southeastern Virginia with her husband, Mike, her young daughter, Kirsten, and, of course, lots and lots of books.

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    Reviews for The Blackbird Girls

    4.5/5

    56 ratings7 reviews

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    • 3/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      Blackbird Girls is a 2022 Lone Star selection.

      I never thought about students not knowing about Chernobyl. It was so famous that I didn't think that about kids not knowing about this nuclear accident. Even people in their 20s didn't know about it when I quizzed them. I've already recommended this novel to students who enjoyed Refugee. It has the same tone and has multiple perspectives from which the story is told. I feel that this novel as well as the new Ruta Sepetys novel, I Must Betray You, really helps modern middle school students understand a part of the world that is currently in the headlines. They haven't been raised during the Cold War as I was, so it explains the significance of current events based on what has happened in the past.

      Chernobyl Power Station in Ukraine exploded in 1986. As Ukraine was then a part of Russia as well as being during the Cold War years, the accident wasn't handled openly and revealed immediately. Both girls in the story have fathers who work at Chernobyl. Neither father returns that morning. The girls don't really like each other. Valentina is Jewish and has a close relationship with her family with her father well-respected for his scientific abilities. Oksana has been taught to dislike Jews and treats Valentina badly in hopes that she is doing as her parents expect.

      As the townspeople are eventually evacuated, Oksana finds herself alone because her mother has too much radiation to travel. She must go to a hospital for treatment. This situation means that Oksana will go with Valentina and her mother. Unfortunately, there aren't enough tickets, so the girls end up traveling to Leningrad alone to stay with Valentina's grandmother whom she's never met. This unfortunate accident leads to new lives.

      Oksana discovers that people, caretakers, can show love and care to others. She discovers her own family was abusive. Valentina's grandmother treats her with love and respect. Gradually, the girls do find a friendship. They must reunite with their families, allowing a way to tie up the stories.

      There's a third perspective given, set in WWII that pulls the story together and helps provide the theme of survival.

      I did think the novel was a wee bit long, but it was very interesting and covered so much information that made it all fascinating. I think students in middle through high school will enjoy it and learn a great deal. I was very invested in the lives of the three main characters and found myself hoping for a happy ending even though I know it's set during the Cold War where happiness wasn't an ending seen often.
    • 5/5
      A nuanced historical fiction that starts with the disaster at Chernobyl. Oksana and Valentina both have fathers that work at the nuclear reactor and don't come home the morning the fire is burning and the sky is full of blue smoke. Oksana has some sort of secret injury and she has frequently bullied and insulted Valentina because she is Jewish.
      The girls, along with their mothers, desperately try to figure out what is going on. Valentina's mom ends up taking the girls to stay with a friend from University. But when the friend finds out how much radiation they've been exposed to asks them to leave. In desperation, they turn to the one person who make take them in, Valentina's grandmother who she has never met. She lives in Leningrad and there are only two train tickets available. Leaving Valentina's mother behind, the girls seek shelter. It's a rough transition. With both girls trying to heal from the loss of their fathers and adjust to life together.
      Woven into the story is the story of Rifka during World War II who is on the run from the Germans and not warmly welcomed by others because she is Jewish. A girl and her family take her in, starting this notion of the Blackbird Girls.
      Topic is one that I haven't seen explored before in middle grade fiction. And the characters are richly developed.
      Soviet society is portrayed pretty darkly with the notion that the secret police might watch everything and doing anything against the party line could bring great danger to you and your family.
    • 4/5
      I was finding this a bit meh when the plot suddenly took a turn I had not anticipated. Great historical fiction and highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      One night in 1986, something happened at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant. Nothing was said about it on the news and no alerts given, so residents of nearby towns continued life as normal despite the billowing blue cloud in the red sky. Oksana still hassled Valentina at school since she was a jew, and Oksana's mother still worked in the garden. When neither of the girls' fathers came home from working at the plant, they figured they had to work over because of a drill. In a couple of days, they found out their dads were hospitalized and they were evacuated immediately. Since Oksana's mom was sick with radiation exposure, Oksana had to go with Valentina and her mom to stay with Valentina's jewish grandmother. The mother ended up being separated from them at the train station to follow at a later date. This story depicts the fear of Ukraine residents of the secret police, the prejudice against jews, and the cover-up of this terrible disaster. It is also a story of hope and resilience, especially as the story is shared by Valentina's grandmother Rifka. This would be a good book discussion book for grades 4-6.
    • 4/5
      Juvenile historical fiction told in alternating viewpoints, that of Valentina and Oksana, two girls who survive the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 after being adversaries for many years in school. Also interspersed is the flashback story of Rifka, who fled from the Nazi invasion of Kiev, Ukraine in 1941.

      There are a lot of hard topics touched upon here, beyond the horrific disaster of Chernobyl and the Nazi atrocities and Holocaust. There is bullying, anti-semitism, child abuse, both mental and physical and authoritarianism.

      But the underlying story is one of kindness, friendship, change and finding beauty. And based upon the life of the author's friend. Uplifting!
    • 5/5
      A poignant YA story of two preteen girls after they are evacuated from the Chernobyl meltdown and traverse the country looking for a safe haven. The journey is complicated by the fact that one of them has to hide that she is Jewish. The story of their journey to safety with a grandmother in Leningrad, is interwoven with that of the grandmother’s own escape from anti Semitic persecution, at the hands of both Nazis and Russians, 45 years earlier during WWII. This story sheds light on Russia’s handling of the nuclear disaster, and on the anti-Semitism in the country at the time of the disaster. The book doesn’t hold back on the realities of life in Russia for a Jewish person, but it also shows the humanity that can prevail even in the harshest conditions.

      Both the death of family members and the physical and emotional abuse of one of the girls by her parents are handled sensitively. Supports are provided at the back of the book for students who need them. I like that many of the chapters are dated and located and all are entitled by a character’s name, it makes the two timelines easy to distinguish and provides many jumping off points for further historical research. The author’s personal connection to the story is heartwarming.