Anna Rosner is the author of the new middle grade novel Eyes on the Ice. Her other books include My Left Skate. Also a teacher, she lives in Toronto.
Q: What inspired you to write Eyes on the Ice, and how did you create your characters Lukas and Denys?
A: I was inspired by the true stories of athletes who had the courage to defect from the Soviet Union, and also by the subject of my second book, a biography titled My Left Skate: The Extraordinary Story of Eliezer Sherbatov. Eliezer’s parents fled Russia due to antisemitism and corruption, and I was able to interview them.
Lukas and Denys are figments of my imagination, but my son, also a hockey player, was often an inspiration for the protagonist’s voice. Sports are a refuge for children who face suffering and adversity in every form. In fact, the “right to play” is a basic child right recognized by the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?
A: My research was very extensive. I first read about the history of Czechoslovakia, then studied athletes’ defections, and finally, consulted with a Czech acquaintance who lived through Communism.
What might have surprised me, in a very sad way, were the details penned in the biographies of survivors of Communism in countries such as Cambodia. I knew it was terrifying regime, but reading true accounts of life under the Khmer Rouge was devastating research.
Q: The Historical Novel Society said of the book, “This riveting story about sorting truth from lies and when to blur the lines between, will appeal to young sports fans and historians alike.” What do you think of that description?
A: Well, the word “riveting” is always good! But I think the critic captured the essence of Eyes on the Ice very astutely.
Citizens of the USSR lived in a constant state of half-lies, or total lies, if they opposed the regime. American dollars, books, and music from the West were all illegal. Everyone was under constant surveillance, including children. You had to lie just to be able to live a little.
In the early 1950s, before Stalin’s death, any dissidence or voiced opposition to the government could get you locked in a gulag or killed. Things were slightly less stringent after Stalin, but still very oppressive, especially after the Prague Spring in 1968.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?
A: I hope young readers will learn about the former Soviet regime, and understand just how important democracy is. I hope they will understand what it really means to lose your freedom, and to be forced to accept political ideologies as one’s own.
Democracy all over the world is in peril today and the past is dangerously close to becoming the present. Democracy isn’t perfect, of course, but it’s better than the alternatives.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I have two books on the go.
One is a middle-grade nonfiction graphic text about a pianist in the Warsaw ghetto titled The Telephone Concerto, and the other, The Last Year with Maddy, is a middle-grade novel based on two girls whose friendship falls apart as each faces difficult personal struggles, including a sibling’s diagnosis with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
It sounds sad, and it is a bit, but the protagonist is feisty, feminist, and sarcastic, so there is a lot of humor.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Just that I am very grateful to my publisher, Groundwood, and to everyone who has purchased, read, or reviewed Eyes on the Ice!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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