russia

A novel in diary form in which the youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas II describes the privileged life her family led up until the time of World War I and the tragic events that befell them.

A gentle, nearsighted peasant girl rescues the legendary Baba Babochka and is rewarded with a magic babushka that enables her to create beautiful "pysanky," or decorated eggs.

Describes many things that originally came from Russia, including inventions, sports and games, food, fashion, musical instruments, animals, arts and crafts, and words.

The villagers are afraid of her, so the legendary Baba Yaga disguises herself as an old woman in order to know the joys of being a grandmother.

Rache ignores her parents' wishes and persuades her great-grandmother to relate the story of her escape from czarist Russia.

In the Russian shtetl where she and her family live, Hannah is given a diary for her tenth birthday, and in it she records the dramatic story of her journey to America.