It might seem impossible for an author/illustrator to write a humorous account of growing up during the Cold War in Russia, but that is just what Eugene Yelchin has done in The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain.
In previous books, Eugene has written fiction about main characters that reflect himself. A ten-year-old boy, on one of his author school visits, demanded that he write a book about his own childhood. This memoir is a response to that request. His family includes his father who is absorbed by poetry, his mother who is engrossed with the ballet dancer Baryshnikov, his brother who is a talented figure skater which earns him status and privileges in the Communist country, his opinionated grandmother, and a missing grandfather that nobody wants to mention.
Children, and any adults who find this book, are astonished to learn that his five-member family lived in a room that was so small that Eugene had to sleep under the dining table. It is there that the young boy tries to figure out how he can become a national hero when he is neither an athlete or a ballet dancer, the roles most honored in the USSR at that time. All Eugene has is the pencil he has snitched from his father. He uses it to draw pictures under the table, in secret, covered by the long tablecloth.
There are places in the book to laugh and to cry, and quite a few where both are appropriate at the same time. The book is listed as being for ages 9-12, but I think it’s unfair for them to have all the fun!