Growing up in Moscow in the mid-twentieth century, ten-year-old Sasha worships Joseph Stalin and can’t wait to take the oath as a Young Pioneer. His father is a member of the secret police, and for the two of them life is good. But everything changes over a two-day period after his father is arrested and friends, neighbors, and even family members turn on Sasha. Initially, he is certain that his father’s arrest has been a mistake, but as the day wears on he gets glimpses of a capricious, cruel government he never knew existed; and it’s one in which his father played a part prior to his downfall. When Sasha himself accidentally breaks the nose off of a statue of Stalin in his school corridor, he sees two of his innocent classmates accused, furthering his sudden awakening to the reality of Stalin’s oppressive regime. Expressive line drawings by the author enhance the sense of time and place of this chilling, fast-paced novel. (Ages 9–12)

“[An] affecting novel . . . This Newbery Honor book offers timeless lessons about dictatorship, disillusionment and personal choice.” ―San Francisco Chronicle

One of The Horn Book’s Best Fiction Books of the Year

Sasha Zaichik has known the laws of the Soviet Young Pioneers since the age of six:

A Young Pioneer is devoted to Comrade Stalin, the Communist Party, and Communism.
A Young Pioneer is a reliable comrade and always acts according to conscience.
A Young Pioneer has a right to criticize shortcomings.

But now that it is finally time to join the Young Pioneers, the day Sasha has awaited for so long, everything seems to go awry. He breaks a classmate’s glasses with a snowball. He accidentally damages a bust of Stalin in the school hallway. And worst of all, his father, the best Communist he knows, was arrested just last night.

This moving story of a ten-year-old boy’s world shattering is masterful in its simplicity, powerful in its message, and heartbreaking in its plausibility.

“Mr. Yelchin has compressed into two days of events an entire epoch, giving young readers a glimpse of the precariousness of life in a capricious yet ever-watchful totalitarian state.” ―The Wall Street Journal

“Yelchin’s debut novel does a superb job of depicting the tyranny of the group . . . A story just as relevant in our world . . . as that of Yelchin’s childhood.” —Kirkus Reviews

“This brief novel gets at the heart of a society that asks its citizens, even its children, to report on relatives and friends. Appropriately menacing illustrations by first-time novelist Yelchin add a sinister tone.” ―The Horn Book (starred review)