Between+Shades+of+Gray

Lina is determined to become an artist. She gets to go to an art school where she will study art with some of the greatest artists in the world. Until one night, the NKVD burst into their house and told Lina and her family that they were being deported. Lina, Jonas, and their mother get separated from their father and Lina has a hope that she will find her father some day and they will all live happily in their old house. The only thing that stops her from doing that is the Soviets. The Soviets work Lina, her family, and thousands of people brutally in return for very little food. While they are being deported, Lina meets a young man named Andrius. His mother claims him to be slow, but he's not (obviously). After six weeks of being on a train with him, she discovers that Andruis and her brother Jonas tore pages out of her book, rolled them up with tobacco inside, and smoked them. They arrive at a beet farm where they are worked very hard. Lina is angry because Andrius and his mother don't work. But she learns that his mom is being forced to sleep with the NKVD. Lina falls in love with Andrius and Andrius is in love with her. Eventually Lina, her family, and some other people are moved again upper Siberia. Lina leaves Andrius with a promise to see each other again. Finally they are at their first work camp in upper Siberia. Everyone is assigned a job and they have a very hard time getting enough strength to do their work when they get barely any food. The winter is very hard for them to get through and many don't survive. Lina and Jonas struggle through it and eventually their mother dies. Lina and Jonas are very determined to live through all of this. At the end of the book, things are all put together for Lina. She finds out that her cousin Joana had to move to Germany and that her father was arrested because he helped the Jews. She writes a letter to the future and someone reads it. It told the people who were reading it how difficult and hard it was to live through that. It also mentioned that Lina and Andrius were married. :) =Lucas stinks hehehehehehehehe= -Lucas

I learned that Hitler was not the only evil ruler of that time. Stalin was also a cruel, harsh man. People were persecuted just for trying to keep their family safe! People were treated like animals, and families were separated and malnourished, and dehydrated. Also I learned that in Lithuania people are not as harsh as some other countries about things like woman, children, and marriage. ~Hannah I learned in __Between Shades of Gray__ that life in Siberia is very, very hard. It is so isolated and desolate that their is barely any way to live. There are no trees or any type of shelter. There aren't many towns or civilized areas. The winters are so harsh and brutal. In the summer the weather is normal and very bearable. -Anna I never new that there was such a county as Lithuania. I also never knew that the counties got rearranged. I also was shocked the first deportation happened only 70 years ago. I also learned a lot of Russian and Siberian geography from the maps in the front of the book. Without the map, I don't think that I would be able to get a full understanding of the distance that they traveled. -Ana I was very surprised at how cruel Stalin was. We always assume that everything in World War two has to do with Hitler doing evil. When you read this book and about this culture, you realize the Jews were not the only ones being killed. The Lithuanians were being killed the same way as the Jews. -Jaren Lithuania sounds like a boring country to live in. I seems like there are not very many towns or cities, trees or no interesting geographical features on the land. Their cultures seems a lot like ours in the way that they don't celebrate weird tradition or holidays, they celebrate Christmas and birthdays just like us. ~Deidra Hope I learned that there were a lot of people that were working under Hitler. There were also some people that weren't bad. A lot of people suffered for no good reason. I always thought that Jews were the only people that were being killed, but I was wrong. This book also describes the hunger and little food and belongings they had with them. I also learned a lot of the hard land to cultivate and the different traditions and holidays.~Alyssa Time was very harsh for them then. It was like our slavery, maybe worse. Their country almost went extinct during this time. I would never be able to survive. This was terrible and I hope this never happens to the world again. -Lucas23 I realized that it wasn't all of Hitler's fault, but it was Stalin's fault too. I am so thankful that I live in the U.S. where I have enough food to eat. I can't even imagine being on that train and traveling for so long with such a terrible smell in there! I also can't imagine working my tail off and getting almost nothing for it. I hope this never happens ever again. -Kendra W.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. It is so action packed and doesn't slow down. It does describe a lot, but it does it periodically and doesn't make it boring. This is probably my favorite WWII book. I really like the romance in this book, but I do not like the ending. I think that she should see Andrius again. ~Alyssa I would recommend this book to anyone because this was one of my favorites book and my favorite multi-cultural book. The only reason I wouldn't recommend this book is because of the violence on how they treat the people. Again, this is one of my favorite books and I would love to read another book like it. ~Deidra Hope I really liked this book. I liked how the author told us about everything thing that happened to them, even if it was gross. I also like how Lina was set on getting her family back together, even when there wasn't much hope. Of course, I loved the love. Andrius and Lina together were so cute. She hated him at first, thought he was absolutely horrible. Until she learned his story. And they fell in love, even thought they would be separated. So I would recommend this book to someone who likes a love story, but also likes to learn the truth about what persecution is really like. ~Hannah I thought this book is very good. There isn't a lot of hard core action but it doesn't go really slow. It is quite hard to read how the people were treated in the camps, and about the wounds they received, but it was still interesting to learn about it. I would recommend this book to people who don't need a lot of action in a book or to people who like World War ll stories. -Anna I thought this book was amazing!!! I kind of connected it with the __Hunger Games__. Katniss and Peeta are both doing what they must do in order to stay alive. Lina is also trying very hard to stay alive. The only difference is that Lina is trying to stay alive and not Andrius. (Well I guess his mother has to sleep with the NKVD and if they get sick of her, Andrius gets a shot in the head.) Just like Katniss doesn't like Peeta at first, Lina doesn't like Andrius, but over time they know for sure that they can't live without the person that they hated. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fast-paced love stories. -Ana I really enjoyed this book. It was awful the way they got treated back then. We cannot even imagine being in one of those camps. This book kept up the action and was exciting. It was a very good book.-Jaren I loved this book. I wish there was a sequel because the ending was a little pathetic. It just stops at random, but the rest of this book had very good detail -Lucas23 I would definitely recommend this book to everyone! I love all of the short chapters because it makes it go super fast! It never gets boring and it teaches you a good lesson on being thankful for the things you have. It is for someone who likes action, violence, and romance. It has it all! It is a very good book! -Kendra W.