Olga Gromova. Sugar Baby

Olga Gromova's book, "Sugar Child," is based on the words of Stella Nudolskaya, whose childhood took place in the Soviet Union in the late 1930s and early 1940s. It's a deeply personal and heartwarming account of how five-year-old Elya, happily growing up in a loving family, suddenly finds herself the daughter of an "enemy of the people" and thrust into a terrifying, incomprehensible world: after her father's arrest, she and her mother are sent to a camp in Kyrgyzstan as "ChSIR" (family members of traitors to the Motherland) and "SOE" (socially dangerous elements). But despite all the hardships, hunger, and illness they endure, Elya and her mother remain steadfast: they read poetry, sing songs, joke, and genuinely care for each other. "Sugar Child" is, in many ways, a "coming-of-age novel," a story about love, but also about dignity and freedom. Eli's mother speaks most accurately about freedom: "Slavery is a state of mind. A free person cannot be made a slave."
"Sugar Child" is a teen novel by Olga Gromova, editor-in-chief of the professional journal "Library at School" (Publishing House "First of September").
The book was translated into Dutch and was longlisted for the Kniguru Prize (2013), awarded the V.P. Krapivin Diploma (2014), included in the list of "Leningrad Region Children's Favorites" (2014), the shortlist of "Best Russian Books of 2014: Children's Choice" (2015), the shortlist of the Leo Tolstoy Yasnaya Polyana Prize (2015), and the list of outstanding children's books in the world, "White Ravens," compiled by the Munich International Children's Library (2015).

Illustrations by M. Pasternak