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“Arcady’s Goal, an immensely rewarding novel by Eugene Yelchin…was inspired by the life of his own father…The pages that follow have the ring of truth. Something vital is at stake. You can feel it. The language is taut and dramatic…The book is tough to read in anything but a single sitting, and sly, in the way of great literature: You think it’s about one thing, only to realize, at the end, it’s been about something else all along.”
— New York Times Book Review
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“As with Yelchin's Breaking Stalin's Nose, the subtext of this deceptively simple work challenges readers to look beyond the characters' situation and consider the historical implications of their dilemmas.
— BCCB
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Newbery Honor-winner Yelchin provides another glimpse into Soviet life, once again with a young boy as the main character . . . It is the emotional power of the tale that captures the reader's heart.
— The Horn Book
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Yelchin follows up his Newbery Honor Book, Breaking Stalin's Nose, with another novel set in Soviet Russia . . . this swiftly moving, lucid novel tells an affecting tale, illustrated with often chilling drawings of Soviet life.
— Booklist
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Yelchin's b&w drawings, interspersed throughout the text as both spots and spreads, add emotional depth and amplify the plot; ample soccer detail makes this a winner for fans of the sport.
— Publishers Weekly
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Two survivors of Stalinist oppression attempt to form a family in this companion to the 2012 Newbery Honor-winning Breaking Stalin's Nose . . . An uplifting, believable ending makes this companion lighter - but no less affecting - than its laurelled predecessor.
— Kirkus Reviews
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“Ample soccer detail makes this a winner for fans of the sport.”
— Publishers Weekly
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“Newbery Honor-winner Yelchin provides another glimpse into Soviet
life, once again with a young boy as the main character…It is the emotional
power of the tale that captures the reader’s heart.”
— Horn Book
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“This swiftly moving, lucid novel tells an affecting tale.”
— Booklist
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“As with Yelchin’s Breaking
Stalin’s Nose, the subtext of this deceptively simple work challenges
readers to look beyond the characters’ situation and consider the historical
implications of their dilemmas.”
— Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books