From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up—This short-story compilation focuses on drugs and addiction. Selections vary in perspective, from the sister of a drug addict in rehab to a family in Afghanistan growing and harvesting opium to survive. Many of the stories are fleshed out and well written, including the title story. Valerin is left at Lenin's grave by his mother when he is five, leading to life in an orphanage. There he meets Squid, a boy to whom he opens up and trusts. When Valerin leaves the orphanage, he heads back to Lenin's grave where he sees Squid as a soldier. Squid has turned to drugs and Valerin tries to reason with him, to no avail. However, there are also stories that are cut short, leaving questions and a sense of incompleteness. Such is the case with "Through the Woods," in which Matthew buys marijuana to take to his grandmother's rest home to ease her pain, with no consequence. Overall, though, the variety of characters, settings, and perspectives make this a quality collection.—
Nichole King, Morgan Hill Library, CA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
The author dedicates her latest book to “those who struggle to make their way.” In these ten stories the “struggle” typically involves drugs, though sometimes in unexpected ways: an Afghan family’s economic security is shattered when the government destroys its poppy crop; a boy risks arrest by providing marijuana to ease the suffering of his ill grandmother; etc. The diverse settings, which range from the author’s native Canada to Russia to Ulan Bataar to Bolivia and beyond, also dramatize the global pervasiveness of drug problems while lending a welcome element of variety to the author’s unrelieved bleakness of tone and her too-often heavy-handed treatment of the theme. Despite these shortcomings, the stories themselves are uniformly readable, and their subject is undeniably timely and urgently important. Grades 7-12. --Michael Cart
