The Impossible Journey

December 16, 2002
Whelan once again brings to life the beauty, sadness and rich culture of Russia's past in this evocative sequel to Angel on the Square. Set a generation after the revolution, this installment opens in 1934 Leningrad and focuses on the children of Katya and Misha, who find themselves alone and desperate after Misha is arrested and Katya is exiled to Siberia. Thirteen-year-old narrator Marya has little hope of finding her father, but she is determined to reunite with her mother. Armed with a map torn from her schoolbook, she and her younger brother, Georgi, set off on a 1,000-mile journey north, "an impossible distance." Suspense runs high as the children, traveling without passports or adequate funds, encounter numerous obstacles as well as some surprising acts of kindness from strangers before reaching their mother's village. A frightening confrontation with a Samoyed tribe proves to be as advantageous as a chance meeting with a prison doctor, who provides a connection between the children and their father. While maintaining a delicate balance of tragic and joyful moments, the author paints a vivid, realistic picture of a newly formed communist state, where government officials have the power to turn lives upside down. The book's wistful open ending will leave readers eager for another episode. Ages 10-up.

May 10, 2004
This sequel to Angel on the Square
, set a generation after the Russian Revolution, follows a 13-year-old who, with her younger brother, goes in search of her mother and encounters numerous obstacles along the way. PW
said the author "paints a vivid, realistic picture of a newly formed communist state." Ages 10-up.

January 1, 2003
Gr 5-8-A story of a remarkable 13-year-old girl in an extraordinary situation. In Leningrad, in 1934, Marya sets out to find her parents, former aristocrats and therefore considered enemies of the state, who have been sent to Siberia as political prisoners. The spirited and resourceful girl learns that her mother is in Dudinka, a thousand miles from the closest railway station. Marya obtains a few rubles selling her paintings (like Kobe in Homeless Bird [HarperCollins, 2000], Marya's creativity helps sustain her) and buys tickets for herself and her younger brother. At the railway station, the children begin their trek, finding their way by following a river. Some strangers help them; others conspire to report them to the authorities for placement in an orphanage. A tribe of reindeer-herding Samoyeds helps the children to their final stop, where they are reunited with their mother. Papa, who had been sent to a coal-mining camp in Siberia, eventually joins them, but is so ill that he dies at the first signs of spring. Life under Stalin as seen through the eyes of Marya is accessible, well researched, and culturally insightful. Lyrical prose conveys both a strong sense of place and the tremendous love that compels the protagonist to find her parents. Once again, Whelan successfully explores territory less traveled in books for young people.-Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME

Copyright 2003 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2002
Gr. 5-8. In a companion to " Angel on the Square" (2001), Whelan turns her attentions to Stalinist Russia, circa 1934. Following the murder of a local Communist party official, 13-year-old Marya's parents (the grown-up Katya and Mishka from the earlier novel) are arrested and sent into exile. Marya and her younger brother Georgi try to manage on their own at first, but eventually they set off on a long trek from Leningrad to Siberia, where they hope to locate their mother. Although the odds are great, with help from a kindly doctor, a fisherman's wife, and a band of nomadic Samoyeds, they succeed. Whelan centers her narrative on the children's journey, adding depth with a wealth of rich background details--about political prisons, the prevailing attitudes toward Communist dissidents, the changing lifestyles of the indigenous peoples of Siberia, and the absence of personal and religious freedoms, and much more. Give this to children who liked the previous book and to fiction fans who are interested in this historical period. A glossary of Russian terms is appended.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)