"Between Shades of Gray" {by Ruta Sepetys} Book Club Ideas



Between Shades of Gray
by Ruta Sepetys

Ruta Sepetys began writing this book when she went to visit her relatives in Lithuania and asked if they had any pictures of her father or grandfather. They said they had to burn all of them. They couldn’t let anyone know they were related to her grandfather who was a Lieutenant in the military. This peaked her interest and she started her research.

DECORATIONS

Brooke made a jar full of old yellowing letters and drawings to represent the jar Lina buried with her sketches.
(To learn how to age paper click HERE)

She also made her own "Dombey and Son" book by Charles Dickens similar to the one Andrius gave to Lina. You can download the book cover for yourself HERE.

We also had:
 - Large globe
-Old suitcases
-Russian nicknacks
 -An owl (haha)
-And a pocket watch.

LET'S EAT!

We had a delicious Lithuanian inspired menu:

Want to make your own DELICIOUS Beet Salad?

Then try our recipe!

DOWNLOAD OUR BEET SALAD RECIPE

TIME TO TALK!



Below are a few of the slides from Brooke's WONDERFUL Power Point on the book.

Download the Power Point presentation for your book club HERE!



Brooke started off her presentation by asking this question. She asked us to stand up if we or our  husband or children belonged to one of the following groups to see if we would have been considered Anti-Soviet.

  *Military personnel

  *Doctor

  *Lawyer

  *Business Owner

  *Teacher

  *Librarian

  *Priest

  *Journalists

  *Military Officer

  *Diplomat

  *Office Worker

  *Farmer

  *Police

  *Citizen of a foreign state

  *Red Cross

  *College Students

  *Bankers



By the end, at least 3/4 of our group was standing.

The cattle cars that these people were packed into were impossibly small.
Brooke looked online to find the dimensions of the cars they were stuffed into for 6 WEEKS. While the information was sparse on the cattle cars deporting specifically the Lithuanians, she found the dimensions for the cars used in the Holocaust.
Reducing the size of the cars to proportionally fit 15 of us, she taped out a rectangle on the floor.
Brooke then had everyone stand in the middle.

We ended up only have 11 people that night, so we had even more room then she planned on. The dimensions came out to be about 8 feet by 4 feet 4 inches. That was if there were about 50 people in a car. From the information gathered on several sites, it indicated that many times they packed up to 100 people in a car. As you can see in the picture, we were very tight in the larger rectangle. I then had us try to squeeze into the smaller rectangle, representing if there were 100 people on the train. 15 of us would have been smashed together in a 4 ft by 1 foot & 4 inches space.

It's unimaginable. 

The 11 of us stood in that little rectangle for all of a couple minutes before everyone started to get uncomfortable, claustrophobic and needing their space! It's impossible to imagine having to stand in that tight of a space for 6+ weeks in the conditions they endured with no showers, bathroom and hardly any food or water.

Brooke had one more activity planned.

Brooke hid an X under one of our chairs before we came to book club. Shalease happened to be sitting on the winning chair so she was the "lucky" one. Brooke said that she represented a leader in the NKVD and she had been chosen to help with translating. (This reference to translating did not always mean just translating). Brooke then told Shalease that if she agreed to help her that she and her family would receive additional food (the reference to "additional food" makes it sound like they were already getting enough food, but they were not- only 3 grams of bread a day). If she did NOT agree, someone else in the group needed to volunteer to take her place.

Shalease is pregnant, so Brooke told her that she needed to think about not only herself, but the life of her child (For many of us, our decisions changed based on if we were just choosing for ourselves or for the lives of our children as well). If she chose to comply with Brooke she was told that she would be looked down on by the rest of the group as a traitor. 

It's an impossible situation to be put in and Shalease wasn't sure what she should choose. She went back and forth with lots of pressure on her, lots of opinions flying around. When Brooke reiterated that if she didn't do it, someone else in the group would have to take her place.

She decided she would cooperate. 

Brooke then congratulated her on her choice and gave her the give-a-way gift of the evening.

(Shown in the picture above.)

Of course it completely unfair, which was Brooke's intention and made all of us think,

"What would I do in that situation?"

What would YOU do?

Many of the people that cooperated with the NKVD were rewarded with food, clothing, shelter or other items but suffered a heavy price in other ways. They felt abandoned by their friends, used by the NKVD and stripped of their dignity.

Brooke did a stunning job illustrating how it would feel, both as the person receiving the "gifts," and also how it would feel to be the people watching another be rewarded for her choice.

Which to them, felt like a betrayal.

As we closed the meeting, Brooke passed around this small pail of chocolates with her favorite quote from the book.
 "We'd been trying to touch the sky from the bottom of the ocean."

Thank you Brooke for a truly memorable book club that none of us will soon forget.

"Between Shades of Gray" {by Ruta Sepetys} Book Review

• Author:  Ruta Sepetys
• Number of Pages: 368
• Year Published: 2011
• Publisher: Philomel Books
• Reading Level: 12 and up
• Genre:  Young Adult Fiction

Book Summary:
Lina is a fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She and her family are used to a comfortable life in their beloved country until the political climate begins to change rapidly.  Lina's family name is added to a long list of names representing people who are to be arrested and taken without warning from their homes.  The inevitable happens.  Lina, her mother and brother are separated from her father and forced into captivity.  They are herded like animals onto train cars that aren't fit for ANYTHING that lives or breathes. They have no idea where they are being taken or why.

Lina and her family are transported north to work camps where they are forced to endure the most terrorizing living conditions.  They are made to perform hard, manual labor for hours on end with nearly no food or water.  They are asked to make sacrifices that are hard for the reader to even comprehend.  Their strength of character is tested in more ways then seems humanly possible at this point in the story, but it doesn't end there.  Eventually Lina and her family are transported even further north into Siberia.  They are now 6,500 miles from home and their limits are pushed to the brink.

 

This heart wrenching story beautifully demonstrates just how effective feelings of love, hope, and perseverance can be in the face of the most harrowing adversity.  

We gave Between Shades of Gray a rating of 4.25 out 5! 

 

OUR GROUP REVIEW: 
Brooke was so creative in her approach to this discussion.  She came prepared with several "object-style" lessons that helped us to mentally transport ourselves into the setting of the book.  She provided us with different ways to experience and understand some of the conditions Lina and her family had to endure.  

For example,  she calculated the "person to space" ratio that Lina and the others had to share in the train car for the first 6 weeks of their journey.  She taped off the correct amount of space on the living room floor and asked us all to step inside the space with a few pieces of luggage.  We could really get a sense of what it might have been like for those poor captives.  It was shocking how tightly we were crammed into the space!  

She also brought an example of the bread ration that they survived on and an example of what prisoners like Lina might have daringly recorded their stories on.  It was such an effective way to make the story come alive. 

What did we as a group enjoy most about the book?

---We enjoyed the themes of strength, love and hope.

What did we not enjoy about this book?

---Most of us didn't not enjoy the ending of the book.  We collectively thought the ending was abrupt and left us hanging a bit.

What did we think of the main characters? Did we love or loath any characters in particular? Why?

---We loved a few of the characters like Lina, Elena (Lina's mother), Andrius Arvydas.  They showed such strength of character throughout the entire story.  We were inspired by their courage and resolve.  

---The characters that we almost unanimously disliked were Nikolai Kretzsky and Mr. Stalas (the bald man).  Although, by the end of the discussion we were able to point out redeeming qualities in both of them.

Share a favorite moment or scene from the book.

---We love the scene that was shared between Lina and Andrius as Lina is being deported again.  It was one instance where we could see that despite the most desperate situation love could lift the human spirit and give life saving hope.

Did we learn something new we didn’t know before we read this book?

---As a group we talked about how we didn't not know anything about the effect WWII had on the people of Lithuania and other surrounding countries in the Baltic region.  We learned through the discussion that even to this day this historical tragedy is not openly discussed in the region.  There are very few  museums or historical documents that tell the story.  If it weren't for the stories that were so courageously recorded and the few survivors who are willing to share we still might not know exactly what happened.

If one (or more) of the characters made a choice that had moral implications, would you have made the same decision? Why? Why not?  

---We discussed at length whether or not we would have signed the confession documents like the "grouchy lady" eventually did.  The documents that said that the captives legitimately committed a criminal act and that they understood that we were to be imprisoned for 25 years.  We recognized that is almost impossible to know how we would have reacted under those horrible conditions.  But most members of the group expressed hope that they would be able to keep their resolve and endure the consequences that came from NOT signing the papers.  We also discussed that having small children would be a deal breaker.  We were all in agreement that we would do anything we could to protect our children.

Overall, what did we think of this book? 

---Overall, everyone enjoyed the book and could find parallels between the story and our current lives.  We found the story to be haunting and unthinkable at times, but came away with a sense of hope and inspiration from a triumphant story. 

*CONTENT CATEGORIES*	*RATING*
LANGUAGE/PROFANITY	MILD
SEXUALITY	MILD
VIOLENCE	HEAVY
DRUG/ALCOHOL USE	MILD
INTENSE/SCARY SCENES	HEAVY

**THE INTENSE/SCARY SCENES CAN NOT BE COMPARED TO A FICTIONAL HORROR MOVIE.  THEY ARE SCARY IN THE SENSE THAT YOU CAN'T  IMAGINE ONE HUMAN BEING TREATING ANOTHER HUMAN BEING IN SUCH AN ABHORRENT MANNER.

This video explains WHY Ruta decided to write this book, clips from actual survivors and what Ruta hopes this book will do for those who read it.