Yesterday, I finished reading The Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman. This historical fiction novel is about Valentina and Oksana, two girls who don't really like each other even though they are the same age and live in the same apartment building. On a Saturday morning in April 1986, a nuclear reactor explodes at Chernobyl, where both of their fathers work. When her mother is taken to Minsk for radiation poisoning treatment, Oksana finds herself traveling on a bus for Kiev with Valentina and her mother. After she is only able to get two train tickets in Kiev, Valentina's mother decides to send the two girls to Leningrad to live with Valentina's estranged grandmother. Although Oksana is desperate to be reunited with her mother, the two girls find common ground and gradually become friends as the months go on.
I absolutely adored this book because I've long been fascinated by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and its aftermath. From the description at the beginning of the story, it seemed so terrifying with the red sky, blue smoke, and metal-tasting air. I was definitely really relieved when Valentina and Oksana were able to leave their hometown of Pripyat, Ukraine, which is still abandoned in the present day because of the radiation levels. While I liked Valentina because of her kindness and engineering skills, it was Oksana with whom I empathized the most as she came to recognize the brokenness of her family. I also loved that she was interested in drawing and painting. As I read the book, I enjoyed how Valentina and Oksana's story was interweaved with that of Rifka, a Jewish girl who had to leave Kiev with her cousin Nathan before the Germans arrived in 1941. Even though the ending is bittersweet, I thought it was beautiful how the author connected the two stories through the theme of found family. The Blackbird Girls is an amazing story of hope, courage, and friendship, and anyone who likes historical fiction should read it.
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