A Year Without Mom

Starred review from August 17, 2015
Set amid the disintegration of the Soviet Union, this absorbing graphic memoir follows a year in the life of a 12-year-old Moscow schoolgirl left in the care of her grandparents while her mother studies in the U.S. “Grandpa wakes me up and has the tea brewed by the time I shuffle into the kitchen, but I am on my own for everything else,” Dasha explains. Working in black and white enlivened by occasional splashes of red and blue, Tolstikova (The Jacket) uses a distinctive, naïf pen-and-ink style to capture the bare streets of wintry Moscow and the lively expressions of Dasha and her friends. Readers will discover that beyond the bleak Soviet setting—before moving, her mother wrote “ads for places like Bread Factory #8”—much of the memoir is familiar pre-adolescent territory: difficulties with friends, important exams, and clothing woes. A final section reveals that Dasha will spend the next year in the States with her mother, and the story follows their first weeks there—then ends abruptly. Readers will wish the sequel were available instantly. Ages 10–14. Agent: Sean McCarthy, Sean McCarthy Literary Agency.

Starred review from September 1, 2015
Tolstikova offers an illustrated memoir of her 13th year: it's the year the Soviet Union falls, but more importantly, it's the year she stays in Moscow with her grandparents while her mother studies abroad. Cataclysmic though the end of Soviet rule is, it occupies just a few pages of this heavily illustrated book: "one morning we wake up and Gorbachev...is taken prisoner by some bad people," Dasha writes, then "good guy Yeltsin...comes to the rescue." Of far greater moment than seismic political activity are the everyday concerns of a middle school girl. She develops a crush on charismatic Petya, hangs out with chums Masha and Natasha, attends after-school art classes, excels in math and physics, has a falling-out with her friends, and applies to a magnet school, all the while carving out a life without her mother. Soviet-era Russian realities are only hinted at, backgrounding Dasha's story but never overwhelming it. Scribbly, childlike pencil drawings are filled in with gray wash and accentuated with red and the occasional pop of blue. They are deceptively simple, but with great narrative sophistication, they capture both the specificity of Dasha's experience and the universality of her emotions. The text is likewise unadorned and effective: "I don't care about anything anymore. It's cold and dark out. I am not cool. Petya will never like me. School is boring. Everything sucks." Fascinating and heartfelt. (Graphic memoir. 10-14)

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Starred review from December 1, 2015

Gr 5 Up-In this fully illustrated novel, 12-year-old Dasha lives in Moscow and is unhappily surprised when her mother decides to spend a year in America, leaving her with her grandparents. Especially since her father moved to Los Angeles, she has really depended on her mom, and the absence of her actual parents is both freeing and painful as Dasha experiences the year-the same year that Gorbachev leaves and Yeltsin takes over what becomes the Russian Federation. Friends, relatives, and a crush on an oblivious boy all help Dasha cope, but what matters are the details of life in Russia. Dasha is delightfully portrayed in pencil-and-ink drawings with a gray wash. Spots of color attract the eye and provide emphasis. The accomplished drawings are loose without being fuzzy, and the slightly amateur look makes sense considering Dasha's age. Dasha is not an angel, nor is she particularly badly behaved. Her parents seem loving but engrossed in their own lives. The interplay of drawings and text sometimes highlights an emotion and at other times conveys a conversation or mood, keeping the pages turning quickly with each scene. VERDICT A lovely portrayal in words and art of a year in the life of an engaging tween girl from the other side of the world.-Carol A. Edwards, Formerly at Denver Public Library, CO

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2015
Grades 5-8 When Dasha's mom goes to America for graduate school, the 12-year-old has to stay behind in Moscow with her grandparents. For the next year, she goes to school, studies art, and struggles with the changing dynamics of her friendships. Dasha often feels like an outsider, and missing her mother doesn't really help matters. Eventually, however, when her mother returns the next summer, ready to bring Dasha with her to the U.S., Dasha doesn't want to leave. While Tolstikova's debut is on the border of what one usually considers a graphic novel, she uses many hallmarks of sequential art to tell the diarylike tale, and graphic-novel readers will likely be drawn in by the distinctive artwork. Handwritten fonts on select pages appear conspiratorially small or loudly large, while the childlike shapes and figures echo the economical, month-to-month account of the year. Tolstikova's pencil and ink washes beautifully capture the spare wintertime landscape, while subtle gestures contribute a depth of feeling to the taciturn text. A quiet, moving, and contemplative story of growth.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

Starred review from January 1, 2016
Tolstikova's illustrated memoir recounts the time when her mother relocated to America for graduate school and she, twelve years old, was left in the care of her grandparents in Moscow. Through present-tense narration, readers follow Dasha's experiences chronologically as she navigates both specific and universal rites of passage, including uncertainty during the 1991 coup d'etat attempt and distress when she learns that her crush, older boy Petya, has a girlfriend (who smokes cigarettes, no less!). Pencil and ink illustrations, in mostly whites and grays, emphasize the chilly setting. Color is used sparsely but to great emotional effect: bright reds on cheeks represent characters' embarrassment; dark, smudgy grays dominate in moments of heartache. Most of the dialogue is in the same type as the main narrative but separated from it through thin speech bubbles drawn around characters' statements. Hand-lettered text (sometimes incorporating Cyrillic) evokes mood as well, as seen when Dasha listens to her mother's words (a letter left for her as a cassette recording) and they surround her, reflecting her longing. The author includes authentic details (including how the Russian grading system works) and, with personality and sincerity, creates an accessible, truthful, and relatable record for readers of a different generation. elisa gall

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)