  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 01/01/2015 Gr 6–9—This classic tale from modern Russian literature typically gets 10 minutes in some history classes, but the story deserves a wider audience. Here, retold by Meyer, it has strong potential to intrigue middle school historical fiction fans. It is told in Anastasia's voice starting when she is 13 years old. On the cusp of World War I, her father is the last tsar and her family lives an opulent and epicurean lifestyle. Anastasia, her four sisters, and her parents are oblivious to warning signs that the tsar's reign is under siege. When Anastasia starts reading her oldest sister's diary in secret, she realizes that her world is in flux. She begins to notice the delicacies her family eats routinely that nobody else can procure. In a subplot, Anastasia has a crush on a young artist, but they are cruelly separated when her family is exiled. Anastasia's story transports readers from a privileged lifestyle at the beginning of the 20th-century to her family being the victims of a brutal revolution. Meyer exceptionally captures Anastasia's voice as she matures. The author strikes the right balance between detail and momentum to maintain readers' attention. This book would be a fine addition to any middle school's historical fiction collection and would pair nicely with Candace Fleming's excellent nonfiction work, The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia(Random, 2014).—Amy Thurow, New Glarus School District, WI - Copyright 2015 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Booklist - 04/15/2015 The story of the ill-fated Romanovs is told here from the point of view of the czar’s youngest daughter, Anastasia. After an introductory chapter set near the end of the family’s lives, the book returns to 1911, when Anastasia’s most pressing concern is finding her older sister Olga’s diary to learn what romantic secrets she’s keeping. Clearly, Meyer has done her research, and the book is filled with details of palaces, court life, and family relationships, but the book really picks up only as tensions in Russia grow and the family’s situation becomes ever more tenuous. Anastasia’s voice is in counterpoint to Olga’s, whose own commentary comes through the diary entries. Meyer does an excellent job of explaining complicated Russian history, but it would have been nice if more information about the veracity of the characters’ interactions had been included in the author’s note (the fate of the main characters is detailed there). Pair this with Candace Fleming’s nonfiction title, The Family Romanov (2014), for a thorough immersion into a fascinating period. - Copyright 2015 Booklist. Loading...
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