Valerie S. (VolunteerVal) -
Thank you to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the advanced listening copy of The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Eugene (Yevgeny) Yelchin, narrated by the author. This is a fascinating middle-grade memoir of the author's experiences growing up Jewish in the former USSR.
Mr. Yelchin has had a long and successful career illustrating children's picture books and writing numerous middle-grade fiction titles. The print edition of Genius includes many of the author's illustrations, but can't capture his rich Russian accent.
The title is the author's childhood nickname given by his father. Its origin is a vivid example of the family's austere living circumstances imposed by the Soviet government. In the memoir, readers meet the members of the Yelchin family: his poetry-loving father, ballet-obsessed mother, strident grandmother, and figure-skating older brother. His mother, who was revered Mikhail Baryshnikov, had a tremendous impact on his life.
Simultaneously humorous and poignant, this memoir written for middle-grade readers is relevant to people of all ages. I've been thinking about how different his childhood, which began just 10 years prior to mine, was from mine, primarily due to the country in which he was born. This would be an impactful buddy read with the young people in your life.
Mr. Yelchin has had a long and successful career illustrating children's picture books and writing numerous middle-grade fiction titles. The print edition of Genius includes many of the author's illustrations, but can't capture his rich Russian accent.
The title is the author's childhood nickname given by his father. Its origin is a vivid example of the family's austere living circumstances imposed by the Soviet government. In the memoir, readers meet the members of the Yelchin family: his poetry-loving father, ballet-obsessed mother, strident grandmother, and figure-skating older brother. His mother, who was revered Mikhail Baryshnikov, had a tremendous impact on his life.
Simultaneously humorous and poignant, this memoir written for middle-grade readers is relevant to people of all ages. I've been thinking about how different his childhood, which began just 10 years prior to mine, was from mine, primarily due to the country in which he was born. This would be an impactful buddy read with the young people in your life.
