about the book
Quite often real stories from history are stranger than anything an author can make up, and this is no exception—the story of the Romanovs, Russia’s last royal family.
The story begins February, 1903, with few flashbacks of how Czar Nicholas, a reluctant ruler, met his German-born wife, Alexandra. Their bond was passionate, but may ultimately have doomed the Russian monarchy, as Alexandra was devoted to the guidance of self-purported mystic, Rasputin. Both monarchs were also very devoted to their children, four girls and one son, Alexei, who had hemophilia. None of this would save them or their family.
The events that led to the Romanovs execution are set out in sequence. For example, there was World War I, a war which the Russian’s fought with few soldiers, few guns, and few supplies. Then there was the state of the economy, with Russians in cities and villages starving for lack of bread. Communism was also on the rise, with Vladimir Lenin stirring up the people for equal distribution of Russia’s wealth.
Nicholas, wrapped up in his own world, with his family, Rasputin, and the monarchy, never recognized the danger…
about the author
Some people would have said that little Candace Fleming was a “fibber,” but her parents knew she was imaginative and encouraged her to write down her tales. In second grade she became fascinated with the sound of certain words. By fifth grade she had written her first mystery, a ten-page, ten-chapter book—with a Newbery Award sticker she had scraped off one of her old books!
Surprisingly, the idea of being a writer never occurred to her while she was growing up. Candace studied history at Eastern Illinois University, intending to work in a museum. Later, when she was reading to her two small sons, she realized that writing children’s books would combine everything she loved—kids, history, writing, and telling tales!
Now Candace writes everything from novels to biographies to picture books. She lives in Mount Prospect, Illinois, with her husband, Scott, and two teenage sons, Scott and Michael.
Source:
Author website
Also by Candace Fleming:
On the Day I Died. Schwartz & Wade. 2012.
The Great and Only Barnum : The Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman P.T. Barnum. Schwartz & Wade. 2009.
The Lincolns : A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary. Schwartz & Wade. 2008.
Our Eleanor : A Scrapbook Look at Eleanor Roosevelt’s Remarkable Life. Atheneum Books for Young Readers. 2005.
Ben Franklin’s Almanac : Being a True Account of the Good Gentleman’s Life. Atheneum Books for Young Readers. 2003.
read more!
Anastasia and Her Sisters by Carolyn Meyer
Anastasia Romanov, her brother Alexei, and her sisters are the children of Tsar Nicholas and Tsaritsa Alexandra, the last royal family of Russia. In the summer of 1914 the family goes on yacht trip to Romania to meet Crown Prince Carol. However, life for Anastasia is not like that of a fairy tale princess, and it will end in tragedy…
The Great and Only Barnum : The Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman P.T. Barnum by Candace Fleming
P.T. Barnum was a larger-than-life nineteenth-century showman and photographer, but how much do you really know about him? Here you can find out all about his famous jumbo elephants, Tom Thumb and his wife, who were only a little over 30 inches tall, and his great three-ring circuses!
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Lina, a Lithuanian girl, is wrenched from her life and taken by the Soviets to a labor camp in 1941. In Siberia, she, her mother, and her younger brother, have to fight to survive both the climate and the Soviet NKVD guards. To cope, Lina retreats to her art, hoping somehow that her story will survive in her paintings.