"'What 'The Nose' so vividly demonstrates to us today,' says Luzhko, 'is that when we blindly believe in someone else's idea of what is right or wrong for us as individuals, sooner or later or refusal to make our own choices could lead to the collapse of the entire political system. An entire country. The world, even.'

He looks at the class significantly and says, 'Do you understand?'

Of course, they have no idea what he's talking about. This Luzhko is suspicious. I always thought so. All teachers use words you hear on the radio, but he doesn't. I don't know what's wrong with him. I turn and walk away."

Ten year-old Sasha Zaichik lives with his father, and 46 other people, in a communal apartment in Stalinist Russia. Sasha's father works for State Security, the secret police charged with identifying traitors and spies among the Russian people. Sasha himself longs to grow up and serve Stalin as his father does, and is looking forward to joining the Young Pioneers at school. But his father returns home one night acting strangely, and is later taken away by the police himself, after being turned in by another family in their apartment. Sasha is convinced there must have been a mistake, and decides he needs to alert Stalin to this error, before it's too late. But Sasha is turned away everywhere he goes - the Kremlin, his aunt's house - and goes to school the next day still a firm believer in the Communist ideal. By the end of the day, though, his ideas of what is true, about his country and his family, will be shaken to the core.

This was a tremendous book, which humanizes the Stalinist regime in a very approachable way. Yelchin vividly conveys the atmosphere of fear that permeated home, workplaces and schools under Stalin, where anyone could turn in a neighbor or classmate for offenses against the state. Teachers who use this book would need to provide ample context, because even Yelchin's note at the end of the novel doesn't provide enough information for someone unfamiliar with this era of Russian history. This would make an excellent read-aloud on its own, or a strong bridge to a more challenging text, such as Solzhenitsyn. It's easy to see how this was awarded a Newbery Honor for this year.