Tag Archives: covid19

Review: The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh

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The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh

The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukranian Famine
Katherine Marsh
MacMillan
Published January 17, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Lost Year

From the author of Nowhere Boy – called “a resistance novel for our times” by The New York Times – comes a brilliant middle-grade survival story that traces a harrowing family secret back to the Holodomor, a terrible famine that devastated Soviet Ukraine in the 1930s.

Thirteen-year-old Matthew is miserable. His journalist dad is stuck overseas indefinitely, and his mom has moved in his one-hundred-year-old great-grandmother to ride out the pandemic, adding to his stress and isolation.

But when Matthew finds a tattered black-and-white photo in his great-grandmother’s belongings, he discovers a clue to a hidden chapter of her past, one that will lead to a life-shattering family secret. Set in alternating timelines that connect the present-day to the 1930s and the US to the USSR, Katherine Marsh’s latest novel sheds fresh light on the Holodomor – the horrific famine that killed millions of Ukrainians, and which the Soviet government covered up for decades.

An incredibly timely, page-turning story of family, survival, and sacrifice, inspired by Marsh’s own family history, The Lost Year is perfect for fans of Ruta Sepetys’ Between Shades of Gray and Alan Gratz’s Refugee.

My Review

Stories with alternating timelines are hit or miss for me, but Katherine Marsh is an author whose books have been on my To Be Read list for a long time. That plus the Kyiv setting and rarely explored place/time in history made this book too good to pass up.

It took me a couple chapters to feel like I found my footing in the story. Matthew, our present-day main character, is chafing at the isolation and boredom of the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Because his family cares for his 100-year-old great grandmother, they stay isolated from the community.

He ends up tasked with helping his great grandmother (GG) sort through some old papers and files. Through this, he discovers a family history he’d known nothing about. Two point-of-view characters from the past, cousins Mila and Helen, reveal the story of the Holodomor, the terrible famine that devastated Soviet Ukraine.

From there, I felt like the pacing of the story picked up, and the connections between the past and present helped to fuel the forward momentum of the story. Matthew’s dad is a journalist reporting on the pandemic from France. He and Matthew discuss the (awful) power of misinformation. They talk about how people can continue to believe falsehoods even as their friends and neighbors experience tragedy.

Just as in the past, Mila at first refuses to believe that her country is experiencing a preventable famine that has already killed thousands.

Conclusion

I thought the way Matthew’s relationship with GG develops and his budding interest in history and writing were really cool elements of the story. I loved that even in that, he shared a connection with Helen, his great-great-great-aunt(??) from the 1930s.

Altogether, I felt like the past and present timeline intersected at just the right moments. It shared themes that built on each other in powerful ways. I loved the introduction to a part of history that isn’t frequently explored, and the connection to the battle against misinformation we still face today.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Helen was born in America after her father emigrated here from Ukraine as a young man. Mila and Nadiya are Ukrainian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
References to celebrating Christian Orthodox holidays. Reference to the fact that religion has been outlawed in Soviet Ukraine.

Violent Content
Someone delivers a sealed envelope containing live lice to a family in an attempt to infect them with Typhus. Boys attack another boy on the playground. An older girl fights them off. Some descriptions of starvation and death. References to a man being shot.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of THE LOST YEAR in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Morning Sun in Wuhan by Ying Chang Compestine

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Morning Sun in Wuhan
Ying Chang Compestine
Clarion Books
Published November 8, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Morning Sun in Wuhan

What was the pandemic of the century like at the start? This swift, gripping novel captures not only the uncertainty and panic when COVID first emerged in Wuhan, but also how a community banded together.

Weaving in the tastes and sounds of the historic city, Wuhan’s comforting and distinctive cuisine comes to life as the reader follows 13-year-old Mei who, through her love for cooking, makes a difference in her community. Written by an award-winning author originally from Wuhan.

Grieving the death of her mother and an outcast at school, thirteen-year-old Mei finds solace in cooking and computer games. When her friend’s grandmother falls ill, Mei seeks out her father, a doctor, for help, and discovers the hospital is overcrowded. As the virus spreads, Mei finds herself alone in a locked-down city trying to find a way to help.

Author Ying Chang Compestine draws on her own experiences growing up in Wuhan to illustrate that the darkest times can bring out the best in people, friendship can give one courage in frightening times, and most importantly, young people can make an impact on the world. Readers can follow Mei’s tantalizing recipes and cook them at home.

My Review

Not going to lie– I love that this book included recipes! I want to try all of them. The game Mei plays, Chop Chop also sounds like a lot of fun. I’ve played a game called Plate Up before which sounds way less sophisticated than how Chop Chop is described to be. Still, I had to laugh when different things happen with Mei and her team members in the game, because it reminded me of things that happened during my own kitchen/cooking game play experience. Haha!

I also really loved the community aspect of the story. I remember reading about the city of Wuhan being shut down during the pandemic, but I didn’t really have a grid for what that was actually like. We get to see the growing fear and uncertainty through Mei’s eyes, but we also get to see the way that she joins other community members to help those in need by delivering food and caring for her neighbors.

MORNING SUN IN WUHAN isn’t a super long book. I think it took me less than two hours to read altogether. The pacing is pretty smooth, and I loved Mei and her friends. It was easy to invest in their stories and hurt along with them and cheer for their victories.

All in all, I think this is a great book for kids who are curious about what the pandemic has been like in other places or are looking for a story about a young chef or gamer. I think readers who enjoyed HONESTLY, ELLIOT by Gillian McDunn will love this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Characters are Chinese. Mei’s mother has recently passed away.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Mei witnesses people getting angry as they shop in the last few minutes before the city shuts down.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

If We Were Having Coffee Update

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I’ve been meaning to post a blog update and also really wanting to do an “If We Were Having Coffee” style post, so today is the day I’m doing it! If you’re unfamiliar with the prompt, it’s basically me talking to you as if we were across the table from each other having coffee– something I know I miss right now with social distancing and such. So. Here we go.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that my mom’s in the hospital. No, it’s not Covid19, thankfully. But it’s still the hospital, still scary, and still not at all what we planned for right now. She’ll be okay. I’m thankful for that. But even though I believe she’ll be fine, the fact that she’s in the hospital still throws my world off-kilter. My family and my parents all share a big house and property together. We love it, and this is part of the reason why we’ve opted for a sort of communal-style life– so we can be there for each other when life throws us unexpected circumstances. But it also means we have the front row seats to those circumstances, and that can be a big deal.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that I’m proud of my daughter. Her whole world got turned upside down with closures and online school at a time of life when friends and social connections are so important. She’s soldiered on, continued to make education a priority, and I’m so proud to be her mom. So much of that momentum comes from her, not me. And It’s really inspiring to watch her. I would tell you that I’m worried about her, too. I see her struggling, and sometimes I feel so powerless to help. It can be really heartbreaking to watch someone you love battling things bigger than they are.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that my family has made more than 300 cotton masks. We’ve given them out to friends, family, and community members. If you know my mom, you probably think it was her idea, because she’s the kind of person who helps the people around her and makes them feel seen and loved. The project was actually my husband’s idea, and he has done the bulk of the sewing as well as creating prototypes and heading up a team of volunteers who’ve helped supply us with materials and prep them. It’s been a pretty incredible thing to be part of, especially when you consider that most of us work at least 30 hrs a week!

If we were having coffee I’d tell you that I want to start doing book photos on Instagram again. I’ve been dabbling and taking some pictures that I’m really proud of here and there, but I’m not totally sure I’ve figured out how I want my account to feel and look, so I’m kind of dragging my feet. Plus most of what’s on the account I have is random photos of stuff, so I don’t know if I should remove those? Post them on another account? Start over? So I’m trying to figure that out.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that I’ve bought way too many books lately. Honestly. I ordered new releases from local independent bookstores. I ordered some backlist titles that I’ve been meaning to add to my library. I got books for my girls. And most recently I ordered books by authors on a much-discussed YALL STAY HOME virtual book con panel. I wasn’t a viewer on the panel, but it sounded like some bad things happened. Rather than offering an unsolicited opinion to the conversation, I opted to support the panel authors by buying their latest books.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you I want to do more book list posts. I often start lists and then leave them languishing in some half-finished state. I want to do more of them and more faithfully. I feel like they’re probably just as helpful if not more helpful than a review, depending on what you’re looking for. I know I enjoy reading them.

What would you tell me over a cup of coffee or tea?

Leave a comment on something I mentioned or tell me something you’ve been thinking about lately. I look forward to hearing from you!