Was meaning to sort and dust my bookshelves but soon came across this, one of my all time favourite children‘s books so had to reread it. The author describes her experiences when exiled to Siberia from Poland in 1941. She shows an incredible ability to adapt and find joy. I read it to my fifth grade class over twenty years ago and one student recently got into contact with me to say it is still her favourite book.

Listened to the Audible version of this book. It tells the stories of six passengers and describes how the world was changing and how this is reflected in the life stories of these passengers. One aspect that had an impact on me, was how the events of that night affected the lives of the survivors going forward. The individual stories are of passengers in first class, but there is discussion and consideration of all passengers as well as staff.

With travel impossible, I‘m going big on travel lit this month with lots lined up to read. I‘m most of the way through “Black Dragon River” by Dominic Ziegler. He describes his explorations of the area around the Amur River between China and Russia and fills in the history. Favourite characters so far...the aristocratic women who abandoned their civilised lives in St. Petersburg to follow their revolutionary husbands into exile in Siberia.