Awarded at the 2022 Moonbeam Children's Awards GOLD medal - Winner of the 2023 Independent Publisher Book Awards. Moving to a new city can be a heartbreaking experience, but also an opportunity to grow. This Birch Tree will realize that even in the darkest spots, one can shine brighter than ever. The day they took me out of my home and loaded me onto a truck changed everything. I went from living surrounded by nature, with my brothers, to ending up girdled by towering buildings in a polluted, noisy city. I was homesick. Accepting that change was extremely difficult, but then I started to realize that the city was not that bad after all. A friendly gardener took care of me. He watered my soil, gave me fertilizer, and trimmed my dry branches so that a pair of finches could nest in them. I began to feel very useful, as I gave people my shade, my oxygen, and my gently-flavored seeds. I soon understood that hope and love could manifest anywhere in the world, so I decided to put down roots. A story that invites us to see adversities as opportunities, and to trust that changes, despite surprising us, can help us grow.

Journals are great for writing down ideas, taking notes, writing about travels and adventures, describing good and bad times. Writing down your thoughts and ideas is a great way to relieve stress. Journals are good for the soul!

Journals are great for writing down ideas, taking notes, writing about travels and adventures, describing good and bad times. Writing down your thoughts and ideas is a great way to relieve stress. Journals are good for the soul!

Journals are great for writing down ideas, taking notes, writing about travels and adventures, describing good and bad times. Writing down your thoughts and ideas is a great way to relieve stress. Journals are good for the soul!

An award-winning debut novel about a quirky immigrant’s journey through a multicultural, post-nationalist landscape Set in Frankfurt, All Russians Love Birch Trees follows a young immigrant named Masha. Fluent in five languages and able to get by in several others, Masha lives with her boyfriend, Elias. Her best friends are Muslims struggling to obtain residence permits, and her parents rarely leave the house except to compare gas prices. Masha has nearly completed her studies to become an interpreter, when suddenly Elias is hospitalized after a serious soccer injury and dies, forcing her to question a past that has haunted her for years. Olga Grjasnowa has a unique gift for seeing the funny side of even the most tragic situations. With cool irony, her debut novel tells the story of a headstrong young woman for whom the issue of origin and nationality is immaterial—her Jewish background has taught her she can survive anywhere. Yet Masha isn’t equipped to deal with grief, and this all-too-normal shortcoming gives a particularly bittersweet quality to her adventures.

Journals are great for writing down ideas, taking notes, writing about travels and adventures, describing good and bad times. Writing down your thoughts and ideas is a great way to relieve stress. Journals are good for the soul!