Welcome to Litsy!

This is a fictional book but based on very real events. It is the story of a peoplx who refused to yield to oppression and colonialism. The struggle for Lithuania to become free was a long one. Book smugglers, ‘Knygnesiai‘, played a huge role in this effort. The cost was great but the price unfortunately had to be paid.
Book bans are nothing new. But right now the rate and capacity at which they are happening is alarming.

As long as we have our books, we cannot be crushed, we cannot be forgotten. Because of our books, we will not be erased from our own history. We will remember who we are, all that we stand for, and all that we will fight for and continue fighting for.

If Lithuania has a place in the real world, then it deserves its own language, its own culture,” I said. “We deserve our own books.”

A piece of me seemed to die as the book was swallowed up in the flames. Perhaps no other book in that stack was a greater threat to this man and the tsar he served so well. For that book was where it all began. Those simple letters became words that became our identity. That book was all we had to save our future; I saw that now more than ever before. If we were forced to speak a language that was not our own, then how long could we hold on

This fire smelled different from other kinds of fires. I knew it was different because it wasn‘t only ink and paper being consumed by the flames, but also the characters themselves, and their worlds and feelings and stories. Did they cry out for themselves, begging to be saved? I believed so, for I was certain I could hear them calling to me.

Words! They weren‘t simply a formation of letters to identify an object or an action. How could they be so little when one sentence set my heart pounding and another caused me to gasp with delight? How could they mean nothing when they lingered in my mind, followed me into my dreams, and challenged everything I‘d always believed? The Russian Empire wasn‘t afraid of a country that spoke a different language. They were afraid of a country whose

Control the books, and you will control the people.

“How do you destroy a people? You take away their culture. And how is that done? You must take their language, their history, their very identity. How would you do that?”
I pressed my lips together, then looked up at her. “You ban their books.”

A bit of a slow start but I ended up feeling quite attached to the characters and tense regarding their situation. Interesting subject matter.

A historical novel of Russian-occupied Lithuania. An excellent example of the purposes & impact of and fight against censorship. This belongs in every middle grade classroom.
Long live book smugglers everywhere!

#MGMarch book 6

I haven't been able to concentrate on anything this week... I was finally able to get in to the school building today and grabbed this that I was reading to my 6th graders. We had less than 100 pages to go, so I'm going to try to finish it tonight or tomorrow #middlegrademarch @megnews @sblbooks

Another story of resistance from Nielsen: where the most dangerous act of resistance was carrying a book

📖 tagged

📚 Scythe trilogy

📔 Silent Patient

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

#Orangecovers
#namastenovember
@Eggs

“How do you destroy a people? You take away their culture. And how is that done? You must take their language, their history, their very identity. How would you do that?” “You ban their books.”

Russian occupation of Lithuania in 1893. Young Audra is thrust into a dangerous new life when her parents are arrested and she discovers they were book smugglers. Can she continue to elude the Cossack soldiers out to stop her?