Escape From Chernobyl (Escape From #1)

by Andy Marino

Overview

"Nonstop action, real history, serious danger. You gotta read these books!" —Alan Gratz, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Refugee

26 April 1986

01:18

Alina & Lev are two siblings living in Pripyat, one of the Soviet Union's proud nuclear cities. Both are asleep in their beds.

Their cousin, Yuri, is a custodian at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, where he's fiercely attacking a spill in the hallway with a mop.

Alina's best friend, Sofiya, sleeps just a few doors down. Her father is an engineer at the plant, a fact that has always filled her with pride.

In five minutes, Reactor No. 4 will explode in a ball of fire. It will expel radiation across their town for nine days before it's finally contained. For the people of Pripyat, it will be far too late.

—

Two young siblings flee the Chernobyl disaster with their parents, but the Communist party is on their heels. Meanwhile, the friends and family they were forced to leave behind must contend with a disinformation campaign that's determined to pretend nothing is wrong-even as deadly radiation spills into the air.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781338718454
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	12/07/2021
Series:	Escape From
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	84,935
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	820L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Andy Marino is the author of Escape from Alcatraz, Escape from Chernobyl, Escape from East Berlin, Escape from Stalingrad; the Plot to Kill Hitler trilogy; and several other novels for young readers. He lives in upstate New York with his wife and two dogs. You can visit him at andy-marino.com.

Editorial Reviews

11/01/2021

Alternating perspectives between three heroic young people living in Pripyat, Ukraine, Marino (the Plot to Kill Hitler series) puts a gripping fictional spin on the April 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Sixteen-year-old Yuri Fomichev is a Soviet citizen interning at the plant while staying with his aunt and uncle. He’s working the night shift when reactor four explodes, and he collaborates with others to salvage the situation and attempt a rescue. His cousin, 13-year-old Alina, who seems to have OCD, is whisked away from town with her brother; eventually, the two make their way back to look for their friends, fleeing at night back to Pripyat. And 15-year-old Sofiya Kozlov, Alina’s outgoing best friend, is the daughter of one of the plant’s nuclear engineers. When party officials downplay the explosion, Sofiya’s father tells her the true magnitude of the danger, and she takes it upon herself to warn her neighbors. Highlighting eerie moments (a column of light from the destroyed reactor lances the night sky), the denial of science by political appointees, and the swift and deadly effects of radiation poisoning, Marino paints a vivid, if not always fully contextualized, picture of the catastrophe, its dangers, and a government willing to cover it all up. Ages 8–12. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

2021-09-24
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster changes the lives of three Soviet teenagers.

Yuri, who’s 16, his 13-year-old cousin, Alina, and their friend Sofiya live comfortable lives in Pripyat, Ukraine—until the morning of April 26, 1986. Yuri is a loyal Soviet citizen and an intern at the power plant who dreams of joining the ranks of nuclear engineers. He is mopping the floors when he hears the explosions of the reactor accident. Sofiya’s father, a nuclear engineer, warns her to stay inside and rushes to the plant to help. Meanwhile, Alina, who is portrayed with what seems to be undiagnosed OCD, is forced to leave her friend and cousin behind as her family is secretly hustled out of the city by a Communist Party official who knows the truth. All characters are presumably White. Though the author admittedly takes a few liberties and the story is fictionalized, the book is well researched and vividly portrays the Chernobyl disaster. The author includes details that paint a picture of the time and place, sprinkling italicized Russian terms and their explanations throughout. He walks a delicate line in dealing with these tragic and politically complex events, mostly with success. A few gory moments may disturb some readers, but excluding them would sanitize the human cost of the disaster. Political maneuvering and corruption are introduced but are insufficiently explored as a cause of the tragedy.

Exciting, tragic, and gritty. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 8-13)

Kirkus Reviews