Reviews for The blackbird girls (J/BOOK)
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
The citizens of the town of Pripyat, Ukraine, have always been assured that "an accident at a nuclear power station was a statistical impossibility."So when the morning of April 26, 1986, dawns red, with "unearthly blue" smoke billowing into the air, life proceeds as normal. Fifth grade classmates and rivals Valentina Kaplan and Oksana Savchenko, however, are worried. Their fathers, night-shift plant workers at the Chernobyl power station, have not yet come home. Soon word gets out that reactor No. 4 has exploded, killing several workers and sending the rest en masse to the hospital, poisoned by the very air they breathe. Forced together by the sudden evacuation, the girls must overcome both their hatred of each other and the grief heaped upon them by the accident as they forge a new life in Leningrad with Valentina's estranged grandmother, who harbors a dangerous secret. Blankman spins a stunningly complex tale out of simple words. By focusing her account on only the two young girls, Blankman situates the seemingly distant horror of the disaster in a firmly human context. Extensive research on historical events, names, cityscapes, and living situations enriches the story, which alternates perspective among Valentina, Oksana, and Rifka, Valentina's grandmother. Rifka's chapters take place during World War II, which initially deflects focus from the story somewhat, but they quickly find their place as the story's heart as they introduce the blackbird, a symbol of eternal friendship. Ukrainian characters are assumed white; Valentina's family is Jewish. Out of the nuclear fallout springs a moving tale of love and loss. (Historical fiction. 9-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
This book trusts readers to figure out that protagonists Valentina and Oksana, whose perspectives alternate for most of the story, have been taught a lot of misinformation. The 1986 Chernobyl disaster forces the eleven-year-old classmates to flee Pripyat, Ukraine, and live in Leningrad with Valentina's kind and generous Babulya, the grandmother she has never known. Oksana has long bullied Valentina for being Jewish, and seeing the misconceptions she'd learned about Jews from her abusive father disproven is Oksana's first indication that he wasn't right about everything. Both girls, whose fathers worked at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, have believed the Soviet government's downplaying of the dangers of radiation, and the catastrophic consequences for their fathers come as a shock to them. Flashbacks to Valentina's grandmother's youth during the Holocaust give a third narrative perspective, shedding light on how Babulya came to be who she is, as well as on her clandestine, illegal religious practice. Though the events are largely bleak, Babulya is a source of hope for the young protagonists, whose gradual evolutions are believable and affecting. Back matter includes information and further reading about Chernobyl as well as resources for readers experiencing abuse. (c) Copyright 2021. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
