50 Fun Facts About Between Shades of Gray

Under which Soviet leader are Lina and her family deported to Siberia in Between Shades of Gray?

Joseph Stalin ordered the June 1941 deportation, which swept tens of thousands of people out of Soviet-occupied lands. Survivors were only gradually released after his death in 1953.

Which Soviet secret police force bangs on Lina's door and arrests her family in Between Shades of Gray?

NKVD was the name of the Soviet interior ministry and secret police in one from 1934 to 1946. The same agency ran the forced-labor camps the family is sent to.

In Between Shades of Gray, how long do Soviet officers give Lina's family to pack before deporting them?

Twenty minutes is all the officers allow, though Lina's mother begs to wait until morning. Her ten-year-old son, not grasping what is happening, gets dressed for school.

In what kind of railway wagon do Lina and her family spend six weeks in Between Shades of Gray?

A cattle car holds Lina's group, who spend much of the trip in darkness. A hole in the corner of the floor is the only toilet.

According to the epilogue of Between Shades of Gray, which man from her years in Siberia does Lina marry?

Andrius Arvydas is seventeen when Lina meets him on the deportation train, and the two are parted when her family is sent north. The epilogue shows they found each other again.

In Between Shades of Gray, which illness does a stolen can of tomatoes help Lina's brother Jonas survive?

Scurvy strikes Jonas a second time in the Arctic camp, when the food runs even shorter. Raw fish is what finally pulls him through.

In Between Shades of Gray, what container holds the writings and drawings Lina buries in Lithuanian soil?

A glass jar protects Lina's papers until construction workers dig it up in 1995. Real deportee Dalia Grinkeviciute hid her own memoir the same way, and it was found in 1991.

Under which title was Between Shades of Gray adapted into a 2018 film starring Bel Powley?

Ashes in the Snow premiered at the LA Film Festival in September 2018 with Powley as Lina. The novel was later republished under the film's name.

Which word, formed from a Russian acronym, names the Soviet prison camp system depicted in Between Shades of Gray?

Gulag shortens the Russian for Main Directorate of Correctional Labour Camps, the agency in charge. In English the word came to mean the whole system of unfree labor.

In Between Shades of Gray, the Vilkas family is arrested after helping Lina's cousin flee to which country?

Germany took in the cousin's family before the deportations began, an escape Lina's father helped arrange. Lina learns only at the Arctic camp that this is why her own family was taken.

In Between Shades of Gray, which cousin and best friend is Lina writing to when Soviet officers pound on the door?

Joana is the older cousin Lina spent her summers with, and memories of her return throughout the exile. She never appears in person, only in flashbacks.

In Between Shades of Gray, what is the first name of Lina's mother, who dies in the Arctic camp?

Elena gives up her own rations to keep her sick son alive, then falls ill herself. She is remembered for sharing food and valuables with everyone in the group.

In which Lithuanian city, the temporary capital between the world wars, does Lina live in Between Shades of Gray?

Kaunas served as Lithuania's temporary capital from 1920 to 1939, while Vilnius was held by Poland. The epilogue returns there, to the spot where Lina's papers are unearthed.

In Between Shades of Gray, which European painter does Lina idolize for painting feelings rather than appearances?

Edvard Munch shapes the way Lina draws the people around her: as she feels them, not as they look. Asked to draw the camp commander, she longs to give him hollow black eyes and snakes at his neck.

In Between Shades of Gray, which author wrote the book Lina is given as a surprise on her sixteenth birthday?

Charles Dickens wrote the gift, Dombey and Son, and also The Pickwick Papers, a present from Lina's grandmother. Pages of that second book get rolled into cigarettes on the train.

In Between Shades of Gray, what does Lina's mother hand a Soviet officer so that Jonas can stay with the family?

A pocket watch made of gold, once her father's, buys her son's place beside her at the station. Lina is horrified that her brother's life is worth so little to the officer.

In Between Shades of Gray, on what item does Lina draw a message meant to pass hand to hand to her father?

A handkerchief is ordinary enough to travel between deportees without alarming the guards. Lina covers it with pictures her father would know as hers.

In Between Shades of Gray, a file Lina takes after drawing the commander places her father in a prison in which city?

Krasnoyarsk is the prison city the file names for her father, so Lina starts aiming her drawings there. She carries the folder out hidden beneath her coat.

After six weeks by train in Between Shades of Gray, Lina's group is unloaded in which region just north of China?

Altai is the bald man's guess when the journey ends, and he is right. The family is put to work there digging the fields of a collective farm.

Lina's cousin from Between Shades of Gray returns as a main character in which 2016 Ruta Sepetys novel?

Salt to the Sea follows refugees making for the doomed ship Wilhelm Gustloff in 1945. In it the cousin, now a nurse, blames herself for the deportation of Lina's family.

Between Shades of Gray was shortlisted in 2012 for which British children's book prize that Ruta Sepetys won in 2017?

Carnegie Medal judges shortlisted her debut, then gave her the prize five years later for another historical novel. She collected it at a ceremony in London.

Ruta Sepetys, author of Between Shades of Gray, was born in which American city to a Lithuanian refugee father?

Detroit is where her father's family settled in 1949, after fleeing Lithuania and spending nine years in refugee camps. Her grandfather, an engineer, found work there.

Before writing Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys spent years in Los Angeles working in which business?

Music management was her first career: in 1994 she launched Sepetys Entertainment Group to represent songwriters and recording artists. Rolling Stone featured her in a 2002 Women in Rock issue.

Lina's surname in Between Shades of Gray, Vilkas, is the Lithuanian word for which animal?

Wolf is the literal meaning of Vilkas, a real Lithuanian family name. The animal runs deep in national legend: an iron one appears in the medieval story of the founding of Vilnius.

In 2013, Ruta Sepetys became the first American young adult author to give a presentation at which institution?

The European Parliament heard her in March 2013, two years after her debut novel appeared. She went on to become the first such author to speak at NATO as well.

Which 1939 Nazi–Soviet deal divided Eastern Europe and opened the way to the occupation in Between Shades of Gray?

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact terms split the region into spheres of influence in August 1939. Within a year the Soviet Union had occupied and annexed all three Baltic countries.

In Between Shades of Gray, which dead animal do Lina and little Janina find and smuggle back to cook?

An owl, huge and lying dead on the ground, gives the starving hut a rare taste of meat. The camp's only medical help that winter is a veterinarian.

In Between Shades of Gray, barges carry Lina's family north to the Arctic along which great Siberian river?

The Lena carries the barges past the Arctic Circle to its mouth, reached in late August with the air barely above freezing. No buildings are waiting for the deportees there.

In Between Shades of Gray, what is the truck carrying Lina's family waiting for outside a hospital?

A woman giving birth, Ona, is on the list too, and she is loaded aboard as soon as the cord is cut. The passengers had hoped the stop meant medical help for one of their own.

In Between Shades of Gray, what do the deportees call the hut they build from sticks, stones and moss in the Arctic?

A jurta is all the group has against the polar winter, and a guard laughs when they ask for a stove. Meanwhile the men must build proper barracks and a bakery for the officers.

In Between Shades of Gray, which treasured toy of young Janina is shot by a Soviet officer?

Her doll goes everywhere with Janina until an officer destroys it and beats her for crying. Afterwards she pretends its ghost still speaks to her.

In Between Shades of Gray, what keepsake is slipped into Lina's pocket during a goodbye hug at the first camp?

A sparkling stone travels back and forth as a token of strength: Lina gives it to her sick brother, he gives it away at Christmas, and it returns to her at the parting.

In Between Shades of Gray, what do Soviet officers pay Lina two cigarettes to copy, along with a photograph?

A map of Siberia is set in front of her, and Lina tries to memorize it so she can redraw it later. She also drops one of the officers' pens into her lap to keep.

In Between Shades of Gray, what do Soviet officers wake the deportees night after night to make them do?

Sign a confession, the officers insist: papers declaring them criminals and accepting twenty-five years of hard labor. A lawyer in the group leads a quiet, dignified refusal.

In Between Shades of Gray, what work does ten-year-old Jonas do alongside two local women at the first camp?

Making shoes puts Jonas beside two Siberian women he quickly charms, and they let him keep scraps to make boots for winter. They later offer a healing tea when he falls ill.

In Between Shades of Gray, what does Ulyushka demand from the Vilkas family for sharing her tiny shack?

Rent is her constant demand, so the family hides food from her, even three potatoes Jonas brings home. Yet when they are sent away she loads them with food for the journey.

In Between Shades of Gray, which vegetable does Miss Grybas smuggle from the fields hidden in her underwear?

Beets are a vegetable Lina has always hated, but she is far too hungry to care how these ones were carried. The only official food is 300 grams of bread a day.

In Between Shades of Gray, what is the real name of the gloomy passenger Lina calls the bald man?

Mr. Stalas is bitter and certain that everyone will die, yet he keeps a soft spot for Lina's family. At the Arctic camp he even helps to save the sick.

In Between Shades of Gray, what was Mrs. Rimas's job before she was deported alongside Lina's family?

Librarian Mrs. Rimas keeps the children busy with stories on the train. A coded letter from her husband later gives the whole group hope that their men are still alive.

In Between Shades of Gray, how does the hated guard Nikolai Kretzsky end up saving lives at the Arctic camp?

By sending a doctor, it is implied: an inspector arrives just as the sick children are close to death. He orders food for the camp and doubts the report that Lina's father was shot.

In Between Shades of Gray, which role does Lina's mother refuse, despite the offer of better treatment?

Spy is the role the officers have in mind: she speaks fluent Russian and could report what the other Lithuanians say. She turns it down and warns her children to watch their words.

In Between Shades of Gray, what does Lina's mother do with her best china and glasses before leaving home?

Smashes them on the floor, so that the Soviets can neither enjoy nor sell them. The officers rush in and accuse her of destroying Soviet property.

In Between Shades of Gray, where does Lina's father work before the Soviets arrest him?

At a university in Lina's home city. Several of the people arrested alongside the family are men she has seen him talking to, and the Soviets charge him as an accessory for helping relatives leave the country.

In Between Shades of Gray, Lina's family is shipped above the Arctic Circle to which bleak camp?

Trofimovsk greets them with a sign and little else: the deportees must build their own shelter before the storms begin in September. Real Lithuanian survivors of the place later published memoirs.

In Between Shades of Gray, which Russian word meaning hurry do officers bark as Lina's family is marched out?

Davai is shouted at the family on the very first night, as they are marched to a waiting truck. Lina's brother later picks up Russian slang of his own from an older boy.

A cover of which songwriter's Ring Them Bells plays over the end titles of the 2018 film of Between Shades of Gray?

Bob Dylan wrote the song, and Lithuanian singer GJan recorded the cover for the closing credits. The film's director shot its music video himself, using scenes from the movie.

In 2018, how did Lithuania honor Ruta Sepetys, author of Between Shades of Gray, to mark a century of independence?

On a postage stamp: she appeared in a commemorative set honoring people whose work raised awareness of Lithuania. Five years earlier the country's president had made her a Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania.

In Between Shades of Gray, which label written in Russian on the train brands Lina's group as criminals?

Thieves and prostitutes is the phrase a seventeen-year-old in the car reads aloud for Lina. The people so branded include a teacher, a lawyer and a newborn baby.

In Between Shades of Gray, Lina's mother speaks fluent Russian after studying in which city?

Moscow is where she studied, and her Russian makes her the group's go-between with the guards. It is also why the officers ask her to translate documents for them.

In Between Shades of Gray, what do guards try to do with the deportees when the six-week train journey ends?

Sell them to villagers as forced labor is the plan, and other groups are taken away. Lina's group is left unsold, so it is driven on to a collective farm instead.