RUSSIAN GIRL

An award-winning photojournalist (Eskimo Boy, 1992) focuses on a nine-year-old girl in Suzdal, an ancient Russian town 150 miles from Moscow. Though Kendall makes clear the economic hardships since the Soviet Union's dissolution (to afford such luxuries as a two-room apartment and a small TV, each of Olga's parents has two jobs, while produce from their babushka's small farm is a necessity), the universal concerns of childhood are the main topic here: school, chores, playing in the first snow, a loose tooth. This is an excellent resource (marred only by a disturbingly ambiguous reference to the beating of a fox), with beautiful photography, a good map, and endmatter including two recipes, the Cyrillic alphabet, some common Russian words, an explanation of Russian names, a capsule history of Russia and of its current economic turmoil, and technical data about the photos. Buried in the acknowledgements is a contact for others interested in traveling or working in Russia. (Nonfiction. 5-9)