In the fall of 1914, safe behind palace walls, Katya Ivanova sees St. Petersburg as a magical place.The daughter of a lady-in-waiting to the Empress, Katya spends all her time with the Grand Duchesses; the royal family feels like her own. But outside the palace, a terrible war is sweeping through Europe, and Russia is beginning to crumble under the weight of a growing revolution. Now, as Katya's once-certain future begins to dissolve, she must seek to understand what is happening to her beloved country and, for the first time in her life, take charge of her own destiny.

From National Book Award winner Gloria Whelan comes the remarkable continuation of her Russian series. With her signature spare language and luminescent detail, award–winning author Gloria Whelan delivers the gripping companion novel to her Russian saga, Angel on the Square. One night in 1934, Marya and Georgi's parent's disappear. The children, alone and desperate, fear the worst. But one crumpled letter gives the children hope and sends them on a difficult mission : to escape the city and find passage to the great Siberian wilderness. This is the story of their journey, one both perilous and transforming. Ages 10+

Too young for the army, one boy takes saving the city into his own hands. The Russian city of Leningrad is darkening with winter and war, and Georgi's family prepares for the worst. His sister, Marya, packs up the great artwork at the Hermitage museum for safekeeping, and their mother tends to the wounded soldiers. But at fourteen years old, Georgi is too young to join the army, and he wonders how he can possibly help his friends and family. As the city slowly starves from lack of food and hope, Georgi knows he can help his people survive, but he must face dangers as real as the battles on the front lines.

In the spring of 1991, a Russian ballerina dreams of leaving Leningrad—forever. A member of the Kirov Ballet Corps, Tatiana hopes to be chosen for the troupe's Paris tour. Once there, she will try to escape the watchful eye of KGB agents, defect to France, and leave the complicated politics of the Soviet Union behind. But like ballet, leaving is harder than it looks. Tatiana becomes entangled in her country's struggle for democracy, and her dream of a better life in Paris is soon challenged by hope for her country's future. Tatiana must make a choice, and there will be no turning back. This companion novel to National Book Award winner Gloria Whelan's breathtaking epics Angel on the Square, The Impossible Journey, and Burying the Sun offers a riveting portrait of a nation, and a young woman, on the brink of spectacular change.