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Burying the Sun

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In Buring the Sun, the continuation of the stories first told in Angel on the Square and The Impossible Journey, 14-year-old Georgi and his family have returned to the city of Leningrad, rented a little apartment, and started up a new life. Leningrade, 1941, is a peaceful city, grand and beautiful but all changes when Germany turns against Russia and WWII finally hits the communist country. Suddenly Georgi's life becomes a whirlwind of change in preparation of war. His mother joins the Russian army as a nurse, his sister Marya is working at the Hermitage, a museum, where she is helping pack up the artwork so that they can be sent somewhere safer. Georgi is too young to join the Russian army but that doesn't stop him from trying to help the war effort. He and his friends do tasks around the city to help the needy. However the days grow darker as food and supplies is cut off from the city and the residents are literally starving to death. Georgi sees the once grand and tall city change in just a few months into hell. Is there some way he can help the city survive?

Gloria Whelan has once again written a poignant historical novel. Like its two predecessors, Burying the Sun doesn't try to hide the cruelities of war and famine. Instead Whelan tells the truth in a way that is not too horrific but still gets the suffering across. Her biggest achievement though is showing how the determination of one young boy managed to illuminate a city shrouded in the darkness of war.

BURYING THE SUN continues the story of the family from ANGEL ON THE SQUARE and THE IMPOSSIBLE JOURNEY. This book is Georgi's story and begins when he is fourteen years old. The family has returned to Leningrad and rebuilt their lives there. But war lurks on the horizon, about to disrupt their peaceful lives. Georgi and his friend Yelena, along with the other young people of the city, are given "patriotic work" to do for the war effort, the first of many changes in their lives. Georgi's older sister Marya has to leave home, and soon the city falls under siege by the Germans. With food running low, Georgi is determined to find a way to help his city.

Gloria Whelan has written another wonderful historical novel and readers who enjoyed the first two books about this family won't want to miss it, and it will appeal to new readers who enjoy historical fiction as well.