Genius Under the Table

<b><i><b>An Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Honor Winner</b></i><br><i><br></i><b>With a masterful mix of comic timing and disarming poignancy Newbery Honoree Eugene Yelchin offers a memoir of growing up in Cold War Russia.</b></b> <p/>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.