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by Eugene Yelchin (Author), Eugene Yelchin (Illustrator)
"Yelchin delivers a darkly humorous slice-of-life account of growing up in the Soviet Union. . . . Humorous, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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.Author Biography
Eugene Yelchin is a Russian American artist best known as a creator of books for children and young adults. He is the coauthor and illustrator of The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, a National Book Award finalist, and the illustrator of The Rooster Prince of Breslov, which won a National Jewish Book Award, and Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku, which has received more than thirty honors. He is the author-illustrator of the middle-grade novel Breaking Stalin's Nose, which received a Newbery Honor and has been translated into ten languages, and the middle-grade memoir The Genius Under the Table, which was an Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Honor Book. In 2026, he won a National Jewish Book Award for his young adult memoir, I Wish I Didn't Have to Tell You This. Eugene Yelchin lives in California.
