A Year Without Mom by Dasha Tolstikova

A Year Without Mom

by Dasha Tolstikova

Now available in paperback, Dasha Tolstikova’s acclaimed graphic novel A Year Without Mom follows twelve-year-old Dasha through a year full of turmoil after her mother leaves for America.

It is the early 1990s in Moscow, and political change is in the air. But Dasha is more worried about her own challenges as she negotiates family, friendships and school without her mother. Just as she begins to find her own feet, she gets word that she is to join her mother in America — a place that seems impossibly far from everything and everyone she loves.

Dasha Tolstikova’s major talent is on full display in this gorgeous and subtly illustrated graphic novel.

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Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7
Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3
Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.

Reviewed by Kait ✨ on

3 of 5 stars

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A beautiful book. The story captures adolescence so perfectly, and I liked how the seasonal changes are reflected in Dasha's mood. It's easy to empathize with this story but it's also a fascinating peek into Russian culture (a favourite topic of mine).

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 16 December, 2015: Finished reading
  • 16 December, 2015: Reviewed