Customer Reviews

The Impossible Journey

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The Imposible Journey is my Absolute favorite book. It is the story of a girl named Marya who lives in Russia during 1934. Her parents have been taken by Russia's communist government. Marya sells paintings she made to get money for the trip. Then she and her brother Georgi set off for the town in Siberia in which they know their mother is. On their "impossible journey" they encounter many things that could either slow them down or help them along the way.

This is the story of a young girl who drags her younger brother from St. Petersburg Russia to an outpost in Siberia in an attempt to reunite with their exiled mother; exiled by the secret police to this far-away place. First they journey by train, then by river, and finally by an even more unusual method. Their father, by the way, had been arrested by Soviet police officers and sent away as well, but his destination couldn't be determined by the children; whereas they were able to learn their mother's whereabouts. This book thus is a grand adventure story (written for young readers), but interesting on another level as well. For the book does provide a semblence of what life was like in the Soviet Russia, and provides a window into that society wherein people were arrested for no reason in the dead of night, seemingly at random, just to keep the citizens of the country passive & afraid. Moreover, the (limited) historical details presented herein are actually factual so those unfamilar with the events of this era will learn a few things. One character in the book helpfully explains a parable within this story of how a bear gets upstaged by a younger, quicker one. "When you make our leader look weak you put all of us in danger." Substitute these bears for the leader of Soviet Russia and the Communist Party chief at the time of the city of St. Petersburg (then called Leningrad) and you have the basis for this novel. A charismatic man by the name of Sergei Kirov was the city chief & the person who was apprehensive of this growing ever-more-popular person was dictator Josef Stalin. A character within the story herein classifies real-life Kirov as "our best hope," but it isn't to be as Kirov is gunned down in cold blood in 1934 (The world-famous Kirov Ballet company is named after this man, incidentially). Historians (in particular, Amy Knight & Robert Conquest) have persuasively shown how Stalin himself was behind this murder; to remove a potential rival in the making. Stalin then used this incident as an excuse to crack down on all potential Kirov sympathizers to consolidate his (Stalin's) own hold on power (since there weren't elections in Soviet Russia & a leader could only be forced out by those around him). "It's people like you," a politcal official thus tells an arrested citizen "who are responsible for Kirov's murder." And it was people like that who were arrested and sent off to God knows where---like the parents of the children of this story---traumatizing people far and wide across the Soviet Union so that leaders like Stalin who ran the country from Moscow could continue to do so as they liked. The Soviet Union/ USSR no longer exists, of course, but the legacy of Communist leaders such as Stalin still does linger over Russia even now as it tries to put the nightmare of Communism behind it. And this short entertaining book is a fine introduction to that era for young readers. (06Jun) Cheers!

This was a great book--full of adventure and very exciting. The children of Katya and her cousin from the last book-Angel on the Square-witness their parents being taken away by the new police instated by the Communist government of Russia. Marya and Georgi, the children, are taken in by their greedy and rude neighbors, who take everything from Marya and Georgi's family's aprtment, and plan to send the two kids to an orphanage. However, they escape by buying train tickets with a Faberge locket their mother recieved when she lived with Anastasia in Tsarkoe Selo before the revolution and begin a journey to Siberia, by boat, through the wilderness, and by traveling and living among natives in northern Russia in order to find their mother by an address they found in a letter from their mother. The ending of the story is heart-warming, with the discovery of their mother and the return of their father in a house in Siberia owned by an old woman who takes them in. However, the reunion is disrupted by tragedy with the death of their father. This is a sad book--but it shows that you should never give up what you pursue, and that if you work hard enough--you will achieve it.

Our family recently returned from an extended stay in Russia. My 11-year old has read all of the books in this series and loves the link to Russian history and the characters of the children in the books.

In this book Georgi and Marya start to search for their parents. They head to a train station where they buy train tickets with the money Marya earned from her paintings and other art work. The train takes them to Moscow and then they get on another train at the Trans-Siberian Railroad. On the train a man with two children tell them his name is Mr. Globov. His wife's name is Olga and his kids names are Nikolai and Yuri. Soon the man finds out that they are trying to find their parents and they don't have passports.. So the family takes them in and helps them by claiming them as their kids on their family passport. Once they get off the train they have to cross the Yenisey River. Once they pass the river Marya and Georgi go to a shop there Georgi gets a globe with a cottage and snow in it.They get a ride from a man with a boat. He says he will take them to a village but instead he takes them to his cottage. Finally his wife helps them excape. However, before they left the man tought Georgi how to fish and went on walks and discovered a lot of good creations. Meanwhile, everyday of the journey Marya put a twig in her pocket and later counted them up after they got to their destination.

The Impossible Journey by Gloria Whelan will enrapture you as you accompany thirteen year-old Marya and her seven year-old brother Georgi as they travel across Russia to find be reunited with their mother.

It?s 1934, and Stalin, the dictator of Russia and a leader of the Communist Revolution, is worshipped by many in Russia. He is also hated- by those known as ?enemies of the Revolution,? namely people like Marya's parents, Katya and Misha, who were children of aristocrats, people who were hated by many Russians. For ?enemies of the Revolution? who are constantly working against the government, many places in Russia are dangerous. Leningrad- where Marya?s family lives is an especially risky city.

One winter day, Sergei Kirov, a leader of the Revolution, is assassinated. Stalin is using his death to retaliate with people who were against him- including Misha and Katya, who are arrested.

Mrs. Zotov, their greedy neighbor, invites them to stay with her and her husband. As payment, they may have all the items in Marya?s family?s apartment.

Marya refuses to attend school so Mr. Zotov, who purchases bear cubs, and makes them dance on the street to collect money, lets her to fill in for him. As days go by, Marya trains the cub and earns increasing amounts of money. She also discovers that her father is being sent to labor in a coal mine in Siberia.

Marya and Georgi receive a letter from their mother, which informs them that she is being exiled for three years in Dudinka, a town that it is close to the mouth of the Yenisey River in barren Siberia. She develops a plan to run away and travel to Dudinka to live with her mother. She would take a train which would drop her off a thousand miles from Dudinka. From there, she would walk, having no money for a steamship ticket. She also did not have enough to bring Georgi along with her so she trades her mother?s treasured necklace for money, enough to buy another ticket and food.

Eventually, tired of having two extra mouths to, the Zotovs announce that they are sending Georgi and Marya to an orphanage the next day. Marya and Georgi sneak away that night to the train station. They become friends with a family, the Glebovs. Dr. Glebov sneaks them aboard the train because they didn?t have the necessary passports. Grateful, Marya tells them their story, and Dr. Glebov confesses that against his consent he is being sent to Siberia as a doctor in one of the coal mines.

After the train trip, then begins their thousand mile walk along the friendly River Yenisey. They encounter bears, a bitter man named Savoff, cold, rain, indigenous Samoyeds, and more. Marya must try to be brave for she must set an example for her na?ve young brother and keep up their hopes of reuniting their family.

The Impossible Journey unfolds as smoothly as a flower opening its petals to the sun, as Gloria Whelan weaves this incredible epic novel about journeying to ones you love and finding help, hope, and friendship, from people you least expect it, and when you need it most.

My daughter read this book as a 6th grader and loved it. We recommended it for a mother/daughter book group we were in, so I read it also.

Gloria Whelan is a master of dealing with runaways and orphans. This book is no exception.

A brother and a sister must travel to Siberia to find their mother after she is sent to a work camp following her husbands arrest. Both children attempt to deal with their emotions as they try to make it hundreds of miles from their home.

The real question is, do they make it?

For people who liked The Angel in the Square, by: Gloria Whelan, you will really like this. Misha and Katya are now married with children, Mayra and Geogi. One night Mayra's parents are arrested. Katya is sent to Siberia and Misha is sent to a coal mine. Mayra dreams of finding her parents. After almost half a year of saving her money, she has enough to make the trip. Marya and her brother stuggle in the wilderness to stay alive. When all hope is almost lost special friends are made. Yet winter is coming, will they survive? It brought tears to my eyes at the how much these girls loved their mother and father.

This is a great sequel to Angel on the Square! When we left them last Misha and Katya were walking through St. Petersburg. Now it is many years later, Misha and Katya are married, and they have two children. Thirteen-year-old Marya and six-year-old Georgi are stunned when their parents are arested by the secret police. They set out on an amazing journey to reunite their family, meeting many friends and enemies along the way. Marya's determined nature and Georgi's sweet, little boy charm, will have you rooting for them all the way! I can't wait to read the third book, Burying the Sun.