Like Ruta Sepetys for middle grade Anne Blankman pens a poignant and timeless story of
friendship that twines together moments in underexplored history. 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 among 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.
