1925-1953

"Artem lives in the sleepy city of Stalingrad, which has mostly been cut off from war with Nazi Germany--until the summer of 1942. That July, martial law is declared as the Nazis begin their unprecedented march toward the city. Artem's older brother is a soldier in Stalin's Red Army, so Artem is worried for his brother's safety once he and his family have evacuated the city. Then the announcement comes. Stalin has ordered that no civilians be allowed to leave Stalingrad. The city which bears his name is an important symbol, and the Red Army believe that the soldiers defending it will fight all the harder if their families' lives are at stake. Artem and his new friend Yuna are put to work shoring up the city's defenses, digging trenches and building fortifications. Then, on August 23rd, the bombing begins. A massive German air raid reduces most of the city to rubble. With Stalingrad blockaded by both the Germans and their own government, escape from the coming battle seems all but impossible"--Provided by publisher.

When her best friend disappears in the summer of 1942, Liza resolves to rescue her no matter the cost, entangling herself in an increasingly dangerous web with two former classmates, one a member of the militia and other other forced to live in Leningrad's tunnels.

Twelve-year-old Ivan has escaped from the siege of Leningrad, but when the town he has taken refuge in is occupied by Hitler's troops, he sees his chance to help the partisans he has met--and to rescue to German shepherd puppies, Zasha and Thor, from the cruel Commander Recht.

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. Based on the author's family, includes a historical note.

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. Based on the author's family, includes a historical note.

The fates of three young men come together during the Battle of Stalingrad in Russia during World War II.

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. Based on the author's family, includes a historical note.

In the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union, ten-year-old Sasha idolizes his father, a devoted Communist, but when police take his father away and leave Sasha homeless, he is forced to examine his own perceptions, values, and beliefs.

"Originally written in a couple of humble exercise books, which were anonymously donated to the Memorial Human Rights Centre in Moscow, this... diary is one of the few first-person accounts to survive the sprawling Soviet prison system. At the back of these exercise books there is a blurred snapshot and a note, "Chistyakov, Ivan Petrovich, repressed in 1937-38"--Jacket flap.

Examines the life and misdeeds of Russian leader Joseph Stalin, discussing how his efforts to turn the Soviet Union into a world power led to the displacement and deaths of millions of people.