The Blackbird Girls
Valentina and Oksana are fifth grade classmates, but they are definitely not friends. Then a nuclear disaster strikes their Chernobyl home and they discover that everything they’ve been taught is a lie…
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What the Book Is About
Jewish Content & Values
Content Advisory
What the Book Is About
Valentina and Oksana live in Chernobyl, where their fathers both work at the nuclear power plant. When a reactor explodes, the girls must flee to safety in Leningrad, where Valentina’s grandmother lives. Valentina’s mother and grandmother are estranged, and Oksana’s abusive father has taught her to hate Jews, but out of necessity, the girls must learn to trust one another. Told from the perspectives of Valentina, Oksana, and Valentina’s grandmother as a girl during the Holocaust, this award-winning book for our oldest readers is a fascinating page turner with serious content but an ultimately uplifting message of hope and love.
Jewish Content & Values
- Valentina’s grandmother keeps Jewish traditions and goes to shul on Shabbat until it becomes necessary for Jews in the Soviet Union to worship in secret. Later in the book there are scenes of the grandmother lighting Shabbat candles and teaching Valentina the bracha (blessing) for candle lighting.
- Valentina’s grandmother welcomes Oksana to her home and looks after her, exemplifying the Jewish values of chesed and hachnasat orchim.
- Valentina's family's Jewishness and the antisemitism they are subjected to are central to the book, which takes place in the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
- The book includes a parallel narrative of the grandmother as a young girl in World War II, fleeing across the Soviet Union as the Nazis approach.
Content Advisory
The Chernobyl disaster occurs near the beginning of the book. Men working at the plant die of radiation poisoning in the hospital and animals have to be left behind as their owners flee. Holocaust horrors (Babi Yar) are described without much scary detail. Child abuse is described in some detail; there's an appendix with information for kids who may need it.
What the Book Is About
What the Book Is About
Valentina and Oksana live in Chernobyl, where their fathers both work at the nuclear power plant. When a reactor explodes, the girls must flee to safety in Leningrad, where Valentina’s grandmother lives. Valentina’s mother and grandmother are estranged, and Oksana’s abusive father has taught her to hate Jews, but out of necessity, the girls must learn to trust one another. Told from the perspectives of Valentina, Oksana, and Valentina’s grandmother as a girl during the Holocaust, this award-winning book for our oldest readers is a fascinating page turner with serious content but an ultimately uplifting message of hope and love.
Jewish Content & Values
Jewish Content & Values
- Valentina’s grandmother keeps Jewish traditions and goes to shul on Shabbat until it becomes necessary for Jews in the Soviet Union to worship in secret. Later in the book there are scenes of the grandmother lighting Shabbat candles and teaching Valentina the bracha (blessing) for candle lighting.
- Valentina’s grandmother welcomes Oksana to her home and looks after her, exemplifying the Jewish values of chesed and hachnasat orchim.
- Valentina's family's Jewishness and the antisemitism they are subjected to are central to the book, which takes place in the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
- The book includes a parallel narrative of the grandmother as a young girl in World War II, fleeing across the Soviet Union as the Nazis approach.
Content Advisory
Content Advisory
The Chernobyl disaster occurs near the beginning of the book. Men working at the plant die of radiation poisoning in the hospital and animals have to be left behind as their owners flee. Holocaust horrors (Babi Yar) are described without much scary detail. Child abuse is described in some detail; there's an appendix with information for kids who may need it.
