Cover Image

The turning

In the months leading up to the August 1991 coup attempt that resulted in the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union, a young dancer with the Kirov Ballet struggles to decide whether to defect while on an upcoming trip to Paris.

Main Author:	Whelan, Gloria.
Format:	Books Print Book
Language:	English
Published:	New York : HarperCollins, c2006.
Edition:	1st ed.
Subjects:	Kirov Ballet Company > Young adult fiction. Defectors > Young adult fiction. Ballet dancing > Young adult fiction. Conduct of life > Young adult fiction. Soviet Union > History > Attempted coup, 1991 > Young adult fiction. Saint Petersburg (Russia) > History > 20th century > Young adult fiction.

Summary:	In the months leading up to the August 1991 coup attempt that resulted in the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union, a young dancer with the Kirov Ballet struggles to decide whether to defect while on an upcoming trip to Paris.
Physical Description:	213 p. : 19 cm.
ISBN:	0060755938 0060755946 (lib. bdg.)
Author Notes:	Gloria Whelan was born on November 23, 1923 in Detroit, Michigan. She took a strong interest in reading early in life when she was bedridden for a year with rheumatic fever. She dictated stories to her sister who would then type them. She then went on to writing poetry and later editing her high school newspaper. She attended the University of Michigan and earned her B.S.degree and M.S.W. degree. She began working as a social worker in Minneapolis and Detroit. She soon became tired of Detroit's hectic pace and moved to a cabin in northern Michigan.This peace was disrupted by an oil company 's desire to drill on her property. Because she did not own the mineral rights, the drilling proceeded. This experience inspired Gloria Whelan to write her children's novel, A Clearing in the Forest in 1978, which was about a boy working on an oilrig. Gloria Whelan has written several works of fiction for children and adults, many set in rural Michigan. She has also written stories set in exotic places like China and India. She won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2000 for Homeless Bird - the story of a young woman in India abandoned by her mother-in-law.

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