Nikolai's Quest: 2022

How do you move forward if you don't know where you started?. Imagine you are eleven years old. You barely remember life before the orphanage. It's Russia, 1996, 'glasnost'-your country is changing. You're aware that changes are happening outside the orphanage and a few within. You worry that the New Zealanders coming to adopt children, will choose your younger more vivacious sister and that you will be left behind. Then a stranger tells your sister she looks like her mother. You begin to wonder whether your father might still be alive. Your name is Nikolai and you have a Quest. Classroom discussion questions include; The blurb on the back cover begins, "How can you move forward when you don't know where you started?" I wonder what that means for you?