Because of her father’s supposed crimes, in 1941, 15-year-old Lina, her mother, and her younger brother are forced from their home in Lithuania and sent to Soviet work camps, first a beet farm and then cutting wood in Siberia, while her father is sent to a Soviet prison. Even though life is hard and sickness and death is all around, the will to live is strong. Lina find solace, and holds on to a bit of herself, through her art, always hoping to get back home.
The deportation by Stalin of people from the Baltic States is not a well-known part of World War II. In America, we grew up hearing about Hitler and the Holocaust, but Stalin, the leader of one of our allies, was carrying out mass deportations, too, and many of those people died in the work camps and prisons they were sent to. Between Shades of Gray is a beautiful and sometimes heartwrenching book. It tells the story of what it was like to be one of the deported from the point of view of a teenager living through it. I highly recommend this book!
5 (out of 5) Stars
Books Read in 2016: 49
Pages Read in 2016: 12,619
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