NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD WINNER A SYDNEY TAYLOR MIDDLE GRADE HONOR BOOK Like Ruta Sepetys for middle grade,Anne Blankman pens a poignant and timeless story of friendship that twines together moments in underexplored history. On a spring morningneighbors Valentina Kaplan and Oksana Savchenko wake up to an angry red sky. A reactor at the nuclear power plant where their fathers work–Chernobyl–has exploded. Before they know itthe two girlswho’ve always been enemiesfind themselves on a train bound for Leningrad to stay with Valentina’s estranged grandmotherRita Grigorievna. In their new lives in Leningradthey begin to learn what it means to trust another person. Oksana must face the lies her parents told her all her life. Valentina must keep her grandmother’s secretone that could put all their lives in danger. And both of them discover something they’ve wished for: a best friend. But how far would you go to save your best friend’s life? Would you risk your own? Told in alternating perspectives among three girls–Valentina and Oksana in 1986 and Rifka in 1941–this story shows that hatredintoleranceand oppression are no match for the power of true friendship.