<DIV><DIV><DIV><DIV>One of <I>Horn Book</I>'s Best Fiction Books of 2011 </DIV><DIV> </DIV></DIV><DIV>Sasha Zaichik has known the laws of the Soviet Young Pioneers since the age of six:</DIV><DIV><I>The Young Pioneer is devoted to Comrade Stalin, the Communist Party, and Communism.</I></DIV><DIV><DIV><I>A Young Pioneer is a reliable comrade and always acts according to conscience.</I></DIV><DIV><DIV><I>A Young Pioneer has a right to criticize shortcomings.</I></DIV></DIV><DIV>But now that it is finally time to join the Young Pioneers, the day Sasha has awaited for so long, everything seems to go awry. He breaks a classmate's glasses with a snowball. He accidentally damages a bust of Stalin in the school hallway.  And worst of all, his father, the best Communist he knows, was arrested just last night. </DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>This moving story of a ten-year-old boy's world shattering is masterful in its simplicity, powerful in its message, and heartbreaking in its plausibility.</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>