Between Shades of Gray
By: Ruta Sepetys
Summary
- This book is about a 15 year old girl Lina Vilkas. She loves to draw is planning to go to art school, when a officer grabs her and her family and takes them to Siberia. They are forced to work everyday. But a boy named Andrius Arvydas falls in love with Lina and they end up getting married. Andrius helps helps Lina and her family as much as he can. Later on Lina gets moved to another camp. On the way Lina's mom gets really sick. So I'm going to leave you with there's 3 questions. Will Lina's mother die?, Will love, hope, and strength keep Lina and her family alive?, Will Lina find her father?, Read between shades of gray to find out!
Theme
Lina and her use love to have hope and strength. Because Lina and her family go through this every day and they always try and stay positive. They always have hope in surviving and finding there father. There are also loving to everyone around them, especially family. Even though Lina and her family get very little food and sleep. They are forced to work everyday and they try their hardest to fight that.
Survivors/history
Here are a few survivors
-Irena Valaityte
-Balys Gajauskax
-Zofija Jakavoniene
-Nijole Sadonaite
The author she interview Irena the most and she was the great inspiration to this book because she went thought the same things as Lina and had survived. Irena sold all of her favorite things to get food or wood. Irena said"I remember my mother once asked a guard' "Why have you gone through all this trouble only to bring us out here and watch us starve and work us to death." The guard said " We don't need death just need your pain and suffering.
Reflection
I think that Ruta interviewed Irena because she was just like Lina. Irena fought for her life. Just like Lina did and she would do anything to stay alive. When the guards game in to her house Lina got separated from her father. That relates to Irena because on a cattle train she said goodbye to her father and a guard took her away and the was the last time she ever saw her father.
I think the author did a good job capturing the labor camps in the book and how they treated the prisoners. Because Irena was treated like Lina was treated in the book.
MLA Link
Sepetys, Ruta . "Author Ruta Sepetys talks about the true history behind Between Shades of Gray."YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2014. <https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GPiQ_LuKtDE&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DGPiQ_LuKtDE>.