Between Shades of Gray ~ Ruta Sepetys
When Lina, her little brother Jonas, and her mother were violently ripped from their home in the middle of the night by the NKVD (Soviet police under Joseph Stalin), Lina knew something was very, very wrong.
Shoved into a train car, Lina’s family (minus her missing father) and many other Lithuanians, are shuttled across the country for reasons they don’t understand. They go days without food, a place to use the restroom, or medical care. To make matters worse, they have no idea where they are headed.
Eventually, Lina, Jonas, and their mother arrive in a forced labor camp (known as a Gulag) in Siberia. Every day was a bitter fight for survival, as all the prisoners faced brutally cold temperatures, minimal shelter, only scraps of food, and consistent terrorization from the Soviet officers who oversaw them.
Throughout their imprisonment, Lina witnesses tragedy and injustice with no end in sight. She only finds hope in the drawings she makes for her lost father and stolen conversations with Andrius, a boy who also lives in the camp.
This novel is hands-down a favorite of mine and a favorite among my students. I recommend this historical fiction to any student who is motivated to read a longer text. It is highly engaging and emotionally captivating. You need this book in your library!
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MATURITY: 3/4
This novel is ideal for age 12+. It does contain some mature and violent content, as the characters are imprisoned in a hostile labor camp. However, I recommend this title to seventh graders all the way up through high school… and beyond!
PAGES: 384
LEXILE: HL490L
(HL = High Level-- the maturity of the novel exceeds the lexile score)
Lexile is a score that helps educators and parents match students with an appropriate text. A Lexile score is a measure of both a child’s reading ability and a text difficulty. However, Lexile does not take into account the content of a novel. So, pairing readers with a text is a complex process, and knowledge of a novel’s themes and plot is necessary to make a high-quality recommendation.
If you are curious about the grade-level equivalent to Lexile scores, check out the conversion charthere!
