Between Shades of Gray

Between Shades of Gray

by

Ruta Sepetys

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Between Shades of Gray makes teaching easy.

Drawing

Lina’s drawings create an important connection between her life back home in Lithuania and her life in the Communist labor camps of Siberia. As she continues to sketch wherever she can—in the dirt on…

read analysis of Drawing

Family Photos

Lina brings photos of her family among her meager possessions when she is deported, as do many of the other deportees. Images of family members give the deportees strength and comfort throughout the treachery of…

read analysis of Family Photos

Andrius’ Stone

While on a bucket run during the train journey, Andrius finds an oval stone full of quartz and other minerals. Stripped of all their worldly possessions, including jewelry and other ornaments, the deportees ooh and…

read analysis of Andrius’ Stone

Josef Stalin

Though Stalin is never actually seen or heard from throughout the novel, his presence nevertheless looms behind every scene. It is Josef Stalin who annexes Lithuania as part of the Soviet Union, and it is…

read analysis of Josef Stalin