The Story That Cannot Be Told

July 1, 2019
When the enemy is everywhere, it's impossible to hide. Readers might not think it's a great risk to watch a movie. Or write stories. Or publish poems. But in Romania in 1989, these are all crimes punishable by kidnapping, torture, even death. Any act that goes against the Communist Party and its leader is a threat, and spies are everywhere. Ileana's sense of danger sharpens when she and her parents discover their apartment has been bugged. What might the secret police have heard? Do they know about Ileana's own habit of writing stories? Ileana is sent to her mother's estranged parents' village high in the mountains, for safety. There, she discovers lessons in loyalty, bravery, and friendship that prove essential when she's faced with her greatest challenge. Historical fiction interwoven with parallel, altered fairy tales, Kramer's debut novel is rich with connections to today's world while easily sidestepping the pitfall of heavy-handedness. Ileana is a charming, complex character who stumbles and makes mistakes as she builds up confidence, bravery, and wisdom against a wonderfully imagined backdrop populated with fascinating secondary characters. Her role in battling the Securitate is both inspiring and believable. Characters are pale-skinned Eastern Europeans. A thrilling, emotional tale of one girl's experience of the fall of Communism in Romania. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 8-14)

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Starred review from September 23, 2019
Kramer’s mesmerizing debut focuses on the final months of the reign of Communist leader Nicolae Ceauşescu in Romania in 1989. Ileana, 10, lives with her parents in a drab apartment in Bucharest. Fearful of ubiquitous government spies, she is passionate about two things: listening to her father’s stories and creating her own in her Great Tome. When Ileana’s uncle, who has written against the regime, disappears, Ileana’s frightened parents send her to live with grandparents she has never met in her mother’s native mountain village. Kramer intersperses Ileana’s experiences of adapting to village life, both more abundant and more arduous than city living, with a retelling of her namesake folktale, “Cunning Ileana,” in which a young princess outsmarts evil princes. Similarly, Ileana, creative and resilient, must outsmart the Securitate to protect the village and her family from the government’s plans. Ileana’s voice credibly connects life under a totalitarian regime and corresponding elements of the folktale, and as the novel builds to a dramatic climax, reality and fantasy become difficult to discern. The supporting characters are all strong and sympathetic, and fully dimensional Ileana exemplifies girl power at its complex and ferocious best. Ages 8–12.

Starred review from October 1, 2019

Gr 3-7-This gripping story describes the impact of the Communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu of Romania on the lives of one family and draws on multiple sources of information-folklore and fairy tales, stories told to the author by Romanian friends, and the author's research into history and literature-to yield a powerful mix of fact and fiction. The writing draws heavily from the language of storytelling: "Once upon a time, something happened. If it had not happened, it would not be told." The book centers on Ileana, a young girl whose world is shaken as the Ceausescu regime erodes individual freedoms and sows fear and resentment. Secret police intrude into people's lives. One day, despite her parents' warnings, Ileana lets in an "electrician," who proceeds to install bugs throughout the family's apartment. Ileana, a talented storyteller and writer, is a threat to everyone's safety, especially her own, so her parents send her to the countryside to stay with her grandparents. Life gets more and more constrained, and the secret police eventually endeavor to destroy the village where Ileana is staying, find her uncle, and punish him for writing a political manifesto. The novel's structure draws readers in. Threaded throughout are retellings of Romanian fairy tales about "Cunning Ileana," a smart princess who outsmarts her enemies. These tales encircle the main narrative in fascinating ways that invite speculation and interpretation. It would be hard to end this story and not feel connected to it and curious to know more about what happened in Romania in the 1980s. VERDICT An engrossing read that will raise questions about how to determine the truth of past events.-Myra Zarnowski, City University of New York

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2019
Grades 4-7 Kramer's debut stitches a patchwork of storytelling, folklore, and history together into a narrative about a Romanian girl suffering under her country's Communist rule and the resistance movement it produced. Ten-year-old Ileana loves writing stories, but stories can be dangerous things when government spies are listening through doors and tapped phones. The day Ileana finds an electronic bug in her bedroom, she is sent into the distant country to stay with grandparents whom she has never met. In the small farming village, Ileana hungrily listens to her grandparents spout local lore and family remembrances, but even their coziest moments are undergirded with fear. Kramer captures the tense, frightening atmosphere in the months preceding the Romanian Revolution, as well as the different forms of bravery that went into toppling an oppressive government. One of Ileana's favorite stories is parsed throughout the main narrative, reflecting elements of her real life, though it is not always seamlessly integrated. The book, nevertheless, is an affecting account of a historic event characterized by monsters, hope, and the power of words.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)