The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain

By Eugene Yelchin

Book Overview

An Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Honor Winner

With a masterful mix of comic timing and disarming poignancy, Newbery Honoree Eugene Yelchin offers a memoir of growing up in Cold War Russia.

Drama, family secrets, and a KGB spy in his own kitchen! How will Yevgeny ever fulfill his parents' dream that he become a national hero when he doesn't even have his own room? He's not a star athlete or a legendary ballet dancer. In the tiny apartment he shares with his Baryshnikov-obsessed mother, poetry-loving father, continually outraged grandmother, and safely talented brother, all Yevgeny has is his little pencil, the underside of a massive table, and the doodles that could change everything. With equal amounts charm and solemnity, award-winning author and artist Eugene Yelchin recounts in hilarious detail his childhood in Cold War Russia as a young boy desperate to understand his place in his family.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 153621552X
• ISBN13: 9781536215526
• Release Date: October 2021
• Publisher: Candlewick Press (MA)
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.9" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 10 to 13 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 8