Swimming with Spies
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Dec 3, 2024
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
As war escalates between the Russians and Ukrainians in the port city of Sevastopol, can one girl and a pod of dolphins prove that communication is the greatest weapon of all?
It’s February of 2014 in the seaport city of Sevastopol in Crimea. Sofiya Oleksandrivna only wants two things: to figure out a way to get Ilya Ilyich to stop bullying her, and to convince her mother to come back home. But as battleships come to populate the waters around their city and Russian forces, including Ilya’s father, start to make their presence known, an even greater threat takes over Sofiya’s life.
The only escape Sofiya has is the dolphinarium where her father is a trainer at the forefront of teaching sign language to a pod of dolphins. And now the Russian military has ordered the dolphinarium to hand over its animals for military use. As armed Russian troops invade Crimea and conflict and tension continue to rise, Sofiya will do everything she can to keep her pod safe. And what she knows better than any of the soldiers occupying her city, is that the most powerful force is communication.
Based on the true events of the 2014 annexation of Crimea, Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger depicts a familiar world where divisions are sown by hate, but where love can make a world of difference.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Talented artist and aspiring scientist Sofiya, 12, narrates Lucyk-Berger's adroit debut, set in 2014 Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula. Since her Russian mother left for Moscow three years earlier, Sofiya has devoted herself to helping her Ukrainian father Tato, the director of the dolphinarium, in training and caring for the dolphins. She's simultaneously intellectually and socially engaged at her school, where Russian and Ukrainian students easily switch between the two languages. When her contentious relationship with Russian Ilya causes them to be paired on a project to raise funds for the dolphinarium, Sofiya begins learning about their interwoven past, and that her beloved sea mammals once served as "military marine systems"—i.e., spies—under the Soviet regime. If the Soviets retake Crimea—as they seem poised to do—the creatures will be forced into service again; Sofiya is determined to keep that from happening. The rich, detailed descriptions of Sofiya's experience training the mammals, which Lucyk-Berger deftly blends with Ukrainian political history, are captivating and Sofiya's deep bond with them suffuses this affecting story of a preteen grappling with her understanding of her own Ukrainian Russian identity and the loss of her mother. Ages 8–12.
