Candace Fleming's (The Lincolns; The One and Only Barnum) fascinating, handsome book focused on the family of the last tsar of Russia is about words--not only the author's narrative, but those of the people who lived the events.
Readers enter a magical other world: Russia, February 1903, St. Petersburg's Winter Palace--a building three miles long--where a party is being held for the nobility, hosted by Tsar Nicholas II and the Empress Alexandra. In contrast to this extravagance, the author then moves to the countryside, where the peasants live in "dismal" villages. Sick, poor, desperate for food, some moved to the cities to work in factories, where conditions proved even worse. This section culminates with an excerpt from the autobiography of a 16-year-old boy who left his village for Moscow in 1895, as he describes his living and working conditions. Not a paragraph goes by without a quote from a letter, telegram, autobiography or eyewitness account seamlessly woven into the narrative. Captioned photographs appear in two discrete sections of glossy pages.
Fleming explains Russian politics; the origins of World War I; the tensions between Tsar Nicholas II and his advisers; anti-Semitism; Nicholas and Alexandra's relationship; and Rasputin's strange hold on the Romanovs. Her descriptions of Rasputin's assassination and Alexei's hemophilia will capture even the most reluctant readers, as will the daily lives of the five royal children, from the height of their popularity to their final tragic months under house arrest. --Angela Carstensen, school librarian and blogger