Trapped in the U.S.S.R.

Number 8 in a minor epidemic of Race Against Time Adventures. They're a kind of B-Movie of the children's book world -- all stereotyping, masses of far-fetched melodrama, speedy action to mask creaky plots and goodies triumphing by the merest whisker. As an inestimable insight into Russia and her people -- forget it! This is strictly the American -- 'all Russians are grim-faced, deeply suspicious, K. G. B. controlled, unfairly hospitalised' version. My librarian colleague and I predicated most of the Russian Christian names (Igor and Natasha are there!) and foretold most of the plot even before I'd begun to read it. So, it'll not be any great loss if you don't stock it, unless you are desperate for something undemanding for less confident, reluctant readers.