Homecoming - Hardcover

Posell, Elsa Z.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152351604 ISBN 13: 9780152351601

Publisher: Harcourt

Synopsis

Their lives in a small Ukrainian town dramatically changed by the 1917 Revolution, the six Koshansky children and their mother struggle to survive in an increasingly hostile environment; after the mother's death, the children escape to America.

About this title

From School Library Journal

Grade 6 Up Braving Russian anti-Semitism, life-threatening food shortages, and bitter cold weather, the Koshansky children struggle to stay alive and escape their 1917 Russian homeland, then in the midst of the Communist overthrow of the Czar. Their hope is to journey to the U.S. where their father anxiously awaits them. (He had previously worked for the Czar and fled when the Revolution began.) The children and their mother are evicted from their home by the Communists, but they manage to survive largely through the mother's ingenuity and sacrifices. Because of these sacrifices, however, she becomes badly malnourished and eventually dies. The responsibility for the six children then falls to the eldest son, who relies on family friendships and strangers' kindnesses to escape. Historically accurate, this fictionalized memoir is believable and moving. Although the six children are sometimes caricatured, their adventures and misadventures more than compensate for the inadequate character development. Focused more on the family's internal dynamics and their friendships with others than on the political and social upheavals of this turbulent period of Russian history, this covers similar territory to other fictional portrayals for young readers such as Marilyn Sachs' Call Me Ruth (Doubleday, 1982) , Leonard Everett Fisher's A Russian Farewell (Macmillan, 1980) , and Anita Heyman's Exit from Home (Crown, 1977; o.p.) , and it has an aura of authenticity. Jack Forman, Mesa College Library, San Diego
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly

This is the story of the six Koshansky children during the cataclysmic years of the Russian Revolution. The Koshanskys had been a moderately well-off Jewish family in a small town in Russia, but the story opens with their abrupt decline in fortunethe Tsar has abdicated, Olya's father is placed under house-arrest by the local anti-Semitic police official, and their house is confiscated by the first of a group of revolutionary soldiers. Olya describes their gradual debasement as a family with an almost painful honesty. Olya's father manages to escape to America and it is his promise to bring the family out of Russia that enables them to survive the starvation, sickness and brutality that befalls them. Leaving their home behind isn't easy, and Olya's story of their crossing Europe on their own is both exciting and moving. A good story and a searing portrayal of a time rarely depicted in children's books. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harcourt
• ISBN 10: 0152351604
• ISBN 13: 9780152351601
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1