I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

 

It's weird to read a book that feels so much like historical fiction and yet the events take place in 1989, one year after my Kiddo was born, and I clearly remember what happened to communism all over Eastern Europe that year. This novel takes place in Romania, which had been governed under the repressive communist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife since 1965 and the Romanian people were controlled by the secret police called Securitate through the use of mass surveillance, which included turning ordinary citizens into informers, usually through blackmail. 

And that is just what happens to Cristian Florescu, a 17-year-old student who dreams of becoming a writer and who secretly enjoys poetry and philosophy and buys English language stuff on the sly. Then one October school day in 1989, Cristian is pulled out of class by a member of the Securitate, or Secu, who informs him that they know what he has done. Cristian is an avid stamp collector and his crime was having given a Romanian stamp to American teen, Dan Van Dorn, the son of American diplomat Nick Van Dorn stationed in Romania. But later, when he looked through his stamp book, Cristian had discovered an American dollar inside it, which was illegal to possess and the Secu tells him he is now guilty of illegal trafficking. Unless...he agrees to collect information on the Van Dorn family where his mother works cleaning their apartment. In exchange for information, Cristian's grandfather, his Bunu, a rebel in his own right, would receive needed medicine for his leukemia.

And because the Secu blackmailed people into becoming informers, Cristian had learned not to trust anyone, certainly not his best friend Luca, whom he is sure was the one who informed on him about the American dollar, or even Liliana, the girl he is attracted to. But Cristian decides that he will not be the kind of informer the Secu wants, thinking he can undermine the Secu. 

Meanwhile, Cristian learns about the fall of Communist regimes are happening all over Europe - Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia - secretly listening to Radio Free Europe on his family's forbidden radio. Why, he wonders, can't that happen in Romania? Perhaps if the world knew what was happening in there, things would be different. And Cristian has just the plan to hopefully make that happen.  

Ruta Sepetys has always been an author whose work I looked forward to reading and yet, I was reluctant to read I Must Betray You. Perhaps it was because of current events happening in the world right now, but once I began reading, I couldn't put the book down. Right from the beginning, Cristian is a compelling character, caring, sensitive and intelligent, curious about the world outside of Romania and, like the grandfather he looks up to, as much of a rebel as you can be under a harsh communist regime. And for that reason, I, of course, wanted to find out what happens once he becomes a reluctant informer for the Securitate. 

Sepetys has also drawn a picture of Romania under Ceaușescu's dictatorship that is as chilling as it is scary. Neighbors and friends informing on neighbors and friends, getting up early to stand in long lines to buy meager amounts of food, acquiring and keeping constant count of Kent cigarettes to use for bartering and bribing, never knowing what is being documented that can be used to manipulate or arrest you. Even the bottle of Coke or the Twinkie that Cristian and Liliana secretly share is documented - but how? Who saw it? Who reported it? But the Secu knows, just like they know about the American dollar Cristian finds. 

As with all of her novels, Sepetys has really done her research. She has managed to convey the hardships, the fear, the constant hunger, and lack of trust in the lives of the Romanian people at that time so well that I had to keep reminding myself that this is a story based on reality and not a dystopian novel, because that is almost what Ceaușescu's Romania felt like. 

Be sure to check the back matter. There is a variety of interesting and informative photographs, an Author's Note that shouldn't be missed, information on Sepetys' Research and Sources, plus an extensive list of sources. And for those who are sharing this book with their class or book club, you can find a Discussion Guide HERE 

This book was borrowed from the NYPL

Catch You Later, Traitor by Avi

It's 1951 and for 12 year-old Pete Collison life is all about the Brooklyn Dodgers, Sam Spade mystery stories, and his best friend Kat A/K/A Katherine Boyer.  He could completely live without his older brother Bobby, who thinks only about rockest and getting into an elite science camp run by am aeronautical government agency, and the NY Giants because what self-respecting Brooklynite would root for any other team than the Dodgers?  Yes, life was pretty ordinary for Peter Collison.

Until one Thursday morning in April, when everything changed.  Suddenly, Pete's teacher Mr. Donovan started picking on him, his friends started to avoid him and even things with Kat felt different.  To top it all off, when Pete got home from school that day, there was a mysterious phone call from a stranger telling him he has to help, but help who? and why?

Pete figures out that Mr. Donovan has said something to the class about his parents, but no one, not even Kat, will tell him what.  The next day, a Friday, Pete's seat in class is changed to last seat, last row -the public school equivalent of no man's land.  And by the end of the day, Pete realizes that his teacher thinks his father is a Communist and had spoken to the class about it on Wednesday when he was out of the room.

At home that day, there is another mysterious phone call asking if Pete would help.  Suddenly, Pete has a lot to think about.  Could his father, a professor of American History at City College, really be a commie?  And even if he did have some affiliation with the Communist Party, who told the FBI about it?  What, Pete asked himself, would Sam Spade do?  His answer - poke around, look for clues, watch, listen and wait, keep everything to himself until he figured things out.

Things seem to just go downhill for Pete.  He's constantly followed by the FBI, who want him to spy on his father, Kat is sent away to boarding school because of him, and the only friend he seems to have left is the blind neighbor he reads to once a week.  To top it all off, after putting his best Sam Spade detecting methods to work, Pete discovers some incriminating family history from the Great Depression that could land his dad in jail.  And now his dad is being called before the Subversive Activities Control Board.  Can all of Pete's clues and information help his dad now?  Or will it only hurt his case?

Catch You Later, Traitor is told in the first person by Pete, who at times tells his story in the language and style of a Sam Spade novel.  This gives the story lots of period flavor and also serves to introduce information which would otherwise be awkward or distracting to include, but necessary to the story.  But that is part of Avi's strength as a writer.

And Avi always manages to produce clever page-turning historical fiction.  Infused with the big story, here McCarthyism and the Red Scare of the early 1950s are real details about living in Brooklyn at that time.  His stylized narration reminded me so much of his two earlier books, Don't You Know There's a War On? and Who was that Masked Man, Anyway? All three books are written in the protagonists favorite form of entertainment - detective novels, snappy slang and radio shows.  I like to think of these as Avi's Brooklyn trilogy.

If Avi is good at capturing the micro-flavor of a time and place, he is also able to realistically represent more complicated macro-events of a period.  McCarthyism was a movement that bred so much fear and ignorance, and that impacted so many lives, including Sam Spade author Dashiell Hammett.  The McCarran Act gave the government license to hunt down anyone they thought might be a subversive and as we see with Pete's dad, if a person couldn't or was unwilling to give names of other Communist party members or sympathizers, they could be imprisoned.  FBI intimidation/bullying tactics are also realistically portrayed.

I think Catch You Later, Traitor is a good introductory novel to this complicated era, and nicely explores themes of loyalty, friendship, the meaning of family as well as the rights and freedoms granted Americans under the Bill of Rights.

If you like Avi, this is a book for you; if you are new to Avi's novels, jump in, you are in for a treat.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book is an EARC received from NetGalley

Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin

More than anything, Sasha Zaichik, 10, wants to become a Young Pioneer in Stalin's Soviet Union and a good Communist like his dad.  Comrade Zaichik, who works for the State Security or secret police capturing enemies of the state, is a true Communist hero, even receiving a medal personally pinned on by Stalin himself.

However, when Comrade Zaichik is arrested by people from State Security in the middle the night before Sasha's Young Pioneer ceremony, he suddenly finds himself homeless, an orphan of the state slated to be sent to an orphanage the next morning.

Certain his father's arrest is a mistake, Sasha decides to go to the Kremlin and personally speak to Stalin about it.  After all,  he reasons, since Comrade Stalin's light is always on, he is probably up working, anyway.  But as soon as the guards see him, he is forced to run away.  Not only that, he gets turned away by his aunt's husband when he goes to her for help.  Sasha finally ends up sleeping in the basement of his aunt's building, under some warm pipes.

He decides to go to school the next day, in the hope that his father's arrest will have already been recognized as a mistake and he will be at the ceremony as promised to tie Young Pioneers red scarf around the necks of Sasha and his classmates.  But his day is filled with moral choices and the events that follow in school turn out to be a microcosm of the wider Soviet world, a world in which people turn each other in to the authorities, where good and bad communists are separated from each other and confessions are forced out of everyone including school children using questionable methods.

As you might expect, by the end of the 24 hours in which Sasha's nightmare takes place, his life has been changed forever.  But what is to become of young Sasha?

There aren't many stories that take place in Stalin's violent, oppressive Soviet Union, and using a young, idealistic boy to reveal what it was really like makes this a much more accessible story than had Sasha already become another suspicious opportunist using the state to get what he wants.    

Yelchin sets Sasha's story in the icy cold Soviet winter, a setting that is a perfect reflection of the attitudes and policies of the characters.  Warm friendships just didn't happen in this atmosphere, instead there was a pervasive atmosphere of fear and mistrust, but also a little honor among 'outsiders' that was refreshing.

Even as his world comes completely apart, as he learns truths that would be difficult for any child to handle, such as what really happened to his American mother, what really went on in the prison his father was taken to, Sasha retains a hopeful, innocent voice with a blind faith that right will win out.  In many ways, Sasha reminded me of Felix from Morris Gleitzman's Holocaust books Once, Then, and After (books I highly recommend if you haven't already done so).

Simple spot black, white and gray graphite illustrations done by the author are used throughout Breaking Stalin's Nose, which aptly reflect to colorlessness of the story's setting.

I can't believe it took me so long to read this book, but now that I have I can see why it is a 2012 Newbery Honor Book.

Be sure to read the Author's Note and accompanying information about the Sasha's Moscow found at the back of the book.  Want more? You can actually explore it all in depth on the novel's dedicated website HERE

You can also find an in-depth 11 page discussion guide from the publisher, Macmillan, HERE

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book is part of my personal library

This is book 1 of my 2015 Newbery Reading Challenge hosted by Smiling Shelves