THE BLACKBIRD GIRLS

A poignant and timeless story of friendship that twines together moments in underexplored history, like Ruta Sepetys for middle grade.

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 between 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.

Anne Blankman may have been meant to be a writer because her parents named her for Anne of Green Gables. She grew up in an old house with gables (gray, unfortunately) in upstate New York. She graduated from Union College with degrees in English and history, which comes in handy when she writes historical fiction. After earning a master's degree in information science, Anne began working as a youth services librarian. Currently, she lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her family. When she's not writing young adult fiction, she's playing with her daughter, training for races with her husband, working at her amazing library branch, learning to knit (badly), and reading.