With a masterful mix of comic timing and disarming poignancy, Newbery Honoree Eugene Yelchin offers a memoir of growing up in Cold War Russia.
Drama, family secrets, and a KGB spy in his own kitchen! How will Yevgeny ever fulfill his parents’ dream that he become a national hero when he doesn’t even have his own room? He’s not a star athlete or a legendary ballet dancer. In the tiny apartment he shares with his Baryshnikov-obsessed mother, poetry-loving father, continually outraged grandmother, and safely talented brother, all Yevgeny has is his little pencil, the underside of a massive table, and the doodles that could change everything. With equal amounts charm and solemnity, award-winning author and artist Eugene Yelchin recounts in hilarious detail his childhood in Cold War Russia as a young boy desperate to understand his place in his family.
Title alpha The Genius under the Table: Growing up Behind the Iron Curtain
Level Biography Middle Plus
Pages Count 208
Genre Nonfiction
Topics Eugene Yelchin. Childhood and youth. Art and drawing. Family. History of the Soviet Union, 1953–1985. The Cold War. Coming of age. Growing up.
Lexile 760L
Trim Size 8 3/10" x 6"
JLG Span Winter
Language English
Rights type Print
Publication date 2021-10-04
JLG Release Date Dec 2021
Minimum grade 5
Maximum grade 8
Reading level Middle
Format Print
Biography Middle Plus (Grades 5-8)
Biography Middle Plus
Biography Middle Plus (Grades 5-8)
For Grades 5-8
Fascinating biographies and autobiographies will enable middle schoolers to read about the lives, thoughts, and accomplishments of the individuals who have shaped our world. Your patrons will learn about a remarkable person each month with this 14-book category.