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Siberiak: My Cold War Adventure on the River Ob
Told in bold black and white illustrations and through adorable non-human characters, Siberiak is part travelogue, part coming-of-age memoir. The teen protagonist, a budding activist, signs up for a peace mission to the then-USSR. By rowboat, bicycle and raft, American and Soviet youth travel through Siberia camping along the River Ob. In her first trip without her parents, the recent high school graduate slowly comes out of her shell to make friends with both Russian and Americans.
With sensitivity and humor, Siberiak tells the tale of a young woman's journey of self-discovery during one unique historical moment.
With sensitivity and humor, Siberiak tells the tale of a young woman's journey of self-discovery during one unique historical moment.
118 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2014
600 people want to read
About the author
Jenny Jaeckel
11 books150 followersJenny Jaeckel is the author of House of Rougeaux, which is her debut novel. Her previous titles include For the Love of Meat: Nine Illustrated Stories and Siberiak: My Cold War Adventure on the River Ob. In 2016, Jaeckel published the graphic memoir Spot 12: Five Months in the Neonatal ICU which was the winner of the 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Spot 12 was also a 2016 finalist in the Foreword Indies Book Awards. She has also appeared as a guest on the popular podcast ONE BAD MOTHER.
Jenny Jaeckel was born in California, but lives in Victoria, British Columbia, where she and her husband became health refugees when their child needed a decade of specialized medical care. Jaeckel is currently working on her second novel, a continuation of the family epic House of Rougeaux, yet to be named.
Jenny Jaeckel was born in California, but lives in Victoria, British Columbia, where she and her husband became health refugees when their child needed a decade of specialized medical care. Jaeckel is currently working on her second novel, a continuation of the family epic House of Rougeaux, yet to be named.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
December 26, 2014
Full disclosure: I was chosen a First Reads winner, and received a paperback copy of Siberiak in the mail today. That in no way influenced the review that follows.
Author Jenny Jaeckel tells the heart-warming tale of her experience as a young ambassador to Russia in this adventurous story. In 1988, just after her high school graduation, Jenny was part of an American group of young people who met up with a similar Soviet group and rowed, biked, and rafted down the River Ob. Her descriptions of all that they encountered and the friendships that they formed along the way were refreshing, and I suspect that anyone who has been an exchange student or would like to be one would enjoy reading this short memoir (which I read in an hour or so). Jenny has also illustrated all of the various aspects of her adventure in primitive black and white drawings, where all of the characters are depicted as long-eared animals. (I don't know if they are supposed to be rabbits, but that's what they reminded me of most.)
A very enjoyable booklet, provided by the small publisher Raincloud Press, and one I am grateful to have read!
Author Jenny Jaeckel tells the heart-warming tale of her experience as a young ambassador to Russia in this adventurous story. In 1988, just after her high school graduation, Jenny was part of an American group of young people who met up with a similar Soviet group and rowed, biked, and rafted down the River Ob. Her descriptions of all that they encountered and the friendships that they formed along the way were refreshing, and I suspect that anyone who has been an exchange student or would like to be one would enjoy reading this short memoir (which I read in an hour or so). Jenny has also illustrated all of the various aspects of her adventure in primitive black and white drawings, where all of the characters are depicted as long-eared animals. (I don't know if they are supposed to be rabbits, but that's what they reminded me of most.)
A very enjoyable booklet, provided by the small publisher Raincloud Press, and one I am grateful to have read!
January 30, 2015
This is bad. The art is bad. The plot consists of here-is-my-trip. Furthermore to top it all off the emotion running through the whole book is a nostalgic look back at those golden days of Communist Russia. (yikes!)
February 7, 2015
What a delightful, refreshing book! :)
I loved the story and the graphics, pure and effective.
I would definitely read other books like this one if I found more! :D
I loved the story and the graphics, pure and effective.
I would definitely read other books like this one if I found more! :D
December 9, 2019
I struggled to read this graphic novel. First, the lettering was bad and some words were hard to decipher. And no, I'm not talking about the Russian ones. Secondly, I didn't like the art at all. Ok, there were all kind of bunnies there to help people tell who was who but, in the end, there were no backgrounds or detailed images of the places the author visited. Which is the point of a travelogue, or not?
I didn't like the way the author presented her story, as well. I did that. That we did that. Than that happened… Kind of boring even if the stuff she was telling was extremely interesting. Come on, a trip to Soviet Russia back in the 1980s!? It should have been full of potential good ingredients for a great story.
Sigh!
I didn't like the way the author presented her story, as well. I did that. That we did that. Than that happened… Kind of boring even if the stuff she was telling was extremely interesting. Come on, a trip to Soviet Russia back in the 1980s!? It should have been full of potential good ingredients for a great story.
Sigh!
November 7, 2014
Jenny Jaeckel's graphic memoir of her high school (right after high school, rather) trip to Siberia as a youth peace event is funny, fresh, and smart. There is a lot packed in the beautifully drawn black-and-white panels. But first, a note about the drawing style: The cover is a bit misleading, though true to the color scheme and bold lines with architectural details. The main difference is how the characters are drawn, which is not realistic at all (everyone looks like giant, cute rabbits or cats on two legs...) So there is a bit of a disconnect between the cover and how the story is actually drawn, as I expected a more realistic, less abstract style judging from the cover. That said, the style is perfect for the story, and the panels are well organized to help with story flow.
On the one hand, the book is about some American teenagers going over to Russia (via Finland) to experience a nature trip along the Ob River. So there is a lot of cultural exchange sort of observations. The Russian villagers along the route seem enthusiastic to welcome the traveling teenagers. I wondered, this being the end of the Soviet times, how the people of these remote places saw the Americans, but expecting a young Jenny to report on the political atmosphere in Siberia would have been unrealistic. Instead, we see the openness and enthusiasm of the villagers towards the Americans, which is probably due to the fact that while ideologies that rule the country change, nothing much changes for people who live in rural areas (at least, that's how it is in most parts of the world). It is also a time when even the Russians were sick of the Soviet way of life, and the Americans must have seemed rather different and kind of awesome to them. (The city experiences are of, of course, hilarious in their own right: the unsmiling visa officer, the unhelpful store clerk, etc.)
On the other hand, the story is an acute and smart look at the "Americans" and in particular, American teenage culture. In this regard, I felt a few things were maybe left out By Jaeckel (or maybe they weren't?) For example, whenever I have experienced a huge group of Minnesotan teenagers going on a trip in my international plane rides, they have always been, without fail, Christian groups (I wished many times that the next group from Minnesota would not be a church group, hoping to break the stereotype, but, alas, I must have bad [or good] luck about this). So these Minnesotans were or weren't a church/etc. group? This could explain why most the book concerns rather positive, almost scarily positive, experiences among the Americans, where the usual rules of high school socialization are evident still (popular kids, dorky kids, etc.) It seems that almost everyone was almost always extremely nice to each other. I found this very surprising. (So I had to wonder if some of the kids were goodie-two-shoes religious kids. I know, I should be ashamed of myself!) I tried to remember my high school trips to the Netherlands for MUN, and I am pretty sure not everyone was nice to each other, though maybe we were nicer to each other, only because we were, for a change, "the same" against the "rest of them?" Beyond the eerie fact that everyone is really nice, Jaeckel's observations are dead on, hilarious, and insightful. She has a way of standing away from it all and observing simple things in very disarming ways that both astonish and entertain. The trip itself seems to have been a great adventure, where the kids bike, raft, and row along the river, visiting villages and camping along the way. The foreign experiences at the banya and how different the Russian teenagers are in their behavior compared to the Americans are insightful, and often hilarious. There are very strangely naive observations, which make the narrator all the more real (for example, her observation of how the American teenage behavior does not allow for close contact, while Russians seem comfortable to touch each other, and how this seems like that are not obsessed with "gay" like the Americans are. Although, I should use past tense, because as American culture is being engrained in the brains of teenagers everywhere, I believe their behavior is much closer to their American counterparts' now, but it is good to be reminded of those days where things weren't so.
Recommended for those interested in teenage experiences of the Cold War, Siberia, and mosquitos.
Thanks to LibraryThing and Raincloud Press for a free copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
On the one hand, the book is about some American teenagers going over to Russia (via Finland) to experience a nature trip along the Ob River. So there is a lot of cultural exchange sort of observations. The Russian villagers along the route seem enthusiastic to welcome the traveling teenagers. I wondered, this being the end of the Soviet times, how the people of these remote places saw the Americans, but expecting a young Jenny to report on the political atmosphere in Siberia would have been unrealistic. Instead, we see the openness and enthusiasm of the villagers towards the Americans, which is probably due to the fact that while ideologies that rule the country change, nothing much changes for people who live in rural areas (at least, that's how it is in most parts of the world). It is also a time when even the Russians were sick of the Soviet way of life, and the Americans must have seemed rather different and kind of awesome to them. (The city experiences are of, of course, hilarious in their own right: the unsmiling visa officer, the unhelpful store clerk, etc.)
On the other hand, the story is an acute and smart look at the "Americans" and in particular, American teenage culture. In this regard, I felt a few things were maybe left out By Jaeckel (or maybe they weren't?) For example, whenever I have experienced a huge group of Minnesotan teenagers going on a trip in my international plane rides, they have always been, without fail, Christian groups (I wished many times that the next group from Minnesota would not be a church group, hoping to break the stereotype, but, alas, I must have bad [or good] luck about this). So these Minnesotans were or weren't a church/etc. group? This could explain why most the book concerns rather positive, almost scarily positive, experiences among the Americans, where the usual rules of high school socialization are evident still (popular kids, dorky kids, etc.) It seems that almost everyone was almost always extremely nice to each other. I found this very surprising. (So I had to wonder if some of the kids were goodie-two-shoes religious kids. I know, I should be ashamed of myself!) I tried to remember my high school trips to the Netherlands for MUN, and I am pretty sure not everyone was nice to each other, though maybe we were nicer to each other, only because we were, for a change, "the same" against the "rest of them?" Beyond the eerie fact that everyone is really nice, Jaeckel's observations are dead on, hilarious, and insightful. She has a way of standing away from it all and observing simple things in very disarming ways that both astonish and entertain. The trip itself seems to have been a great adventure, where the kids bike, raft, and row along the river, visiting villages and camping along the way. The foreign experiences at the banya and how different the Russian teenagers are in their behavior compared to the Americans are insightful, and often hilarious. There are very strangely naive observations, which make the narrator all the more real (for example, her observation of how the American teenage behavior does not allow for close contact, while Russians seem comfortable to touch each other, and how this seems like that are not obsessed with "gay" like the Americans are. Although, I should use past tense, because as American culture is being engrained in the brains of teenagers everywhere, I believe their behavior is much closer to their American counterparts' now, but it is good to be reminded of those days where things weren't so.
Recommended for those interested in teenage experiences of the Cold War, Siberia, and mosquitos.
Thanks to LibraryThing and Raincloud Press for a free copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
January 30, 2015
More graphic novel goodness. As I get sleepier and lazier in my reading habits (let's just say that my attempts at Finnegan's Wake are taking up my intelligent reading brain cells), I am turning more and more to graphic novels. They are quick to read, they aren't text heavy, and generally, even the ones dealing with serious issues aren't physically or mentally heavy. Siberiak is only 118 pages in length, and with simpler pictures than my last graphic novel read, so a perfect quick read before bed.
Siberiak is a lightly affecting read about a group of Americans who go on a peace tour (exchange? I'm not really quite sure what to call it) in Soviet Russia in 1988. It's a memoir and the main character is a girl named Jenny, who is a bit shy, a bit silly, a bit funny, maybe one could say a bit like me. Going to Soviet Russia seems like the sort of thing I would have done (barring the fact that I was nine when the Soviet Union collapsed). There are bits of Russian, in Cyrillic, speckled throughout the comic, basic stuff (please, thank you, etc.) and I was pleased with how much I remembered from my very basic course in Russian from university (я очень люблю русский язык!)
It's a sweet book, in the same way a kitten or a bunny rabbit is sweet. Not much happens. Jenny goes around on the tour, meets some Russians, goes home. There's no real emotional depth to any of her encounters, there's no real conflict (other than a brief squabble near the end about feet on tables and empty chocolate bar wrappers). She passes up a chance to visit Томск-7 (or maybe she did go and just had enough sense not to write about it). While there is a lot of and this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened, because the book is short and because you can sense the innocence of these teenagers in these encounters, the story ends before one can get too annoyed. There's an epilogue, brief, only two pages, that might have benefited from some more self-reflection on the experience. As Jaeckel writes at the end:
"Did we change the world? Sure we did. A little."
I would have liked to see a bit more how the world was changed.
As for style, Siberiak is drawn much like Maus with characters represented by animals. Americans are bunnies and the Russians are cats? Voles? Hares? I'm not quite sure. They have pointy rather than floppy ears. The pictures are simplistic and black and white only. The lettering strained my eyes. I got a proof copy to read, so maybe once published the lettering will be cleared up, but half the time I was squinting to see what the words said. Both the drawing and the lettering could have been cleaned up some, but I think the point for this graphic novel is the story and less the artwork; the artwork is just along for the ride, almost like padding to flesh the story out.
In any case, Jenny Jaeckel had an adventure and I learned that bicycle in Russian is велосипед, transliterated, velociped, which is pretty awesome.
Siberiak: My Cold War Adventure on the River Ob by Jenny Jaeckel went on sale October 15, 2014.
I received a copy free in a librarything giveway in exchange for an honest review.
Siberiak is a lightly affecting read about a group of Americans who go on a peace tour (exchange? I'm not really quite sure what to call it) in Soviet Russia in 1988. It's a memoir and the main character is a girl named Jenny, who is a bit shy, a bit silly, a bit funny, maybe one could say a bit like me. Going to Soviet Russia seems like the sort of thing I would have done (barring the fact that I was nine when the Soviet Union collapsed). There are bits of Russian, in Cyrillic, speckled throughout the comic, basic stuff (please, thank you, etc.) and I was pleased with how much I remembered from my very basic course in Russian from university (я очень люблю русский язык!)
It's a sweet book, in the same way a kitten or a bunny rabbit is sweet. Not much happens. Jenny goes around on the tour, meets some Russians, goes home. There's no real emotional depth to any of her encounters, there's no real conflict (other than a brief squabble near the end about feet on tables and empty chocolate bar wrappers). She passes up a chance to visit Томск-7 (or maybe she did go and just had enough sense not to write about it). While there is a lot of and this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened, because the book is short and because you can sense the innocence of these teenagers in these encounters, the story ends before one can get too annoyed. There's an epilogue, brief, only two pages, that might have benefited from some more self-reflection on the experience. As Jaeckel writes at the end:
"Did we change the world? Sure we did. A little."
I would have liked to see a bit more how the world was changed.
As for style, Siberiak is drawn much like Maus with characters represented by animals. Americans are bunnies and the Russians are cats? Voles? Hares? I'm not quite sure. They have pointy rather than floppy ears. The pictures are simplistic and black and white only. The lettering strained my eyes. I got a proof copy to read, so maybe once published the lettering will be cleared up, but half the time I was squinting to see what the words said. Both the drawing and the lettering could have been cleaned up some, but I think the point for this graphic novel is the story and less the artwork; the artwork is just along for the ride, almost like padding to flesh the story out.
In any case, Jenny Jaeckel had an adventure and I learned that bicycle in Russian is велосипед, transliterated, velociped, which is pretty awesome.
Siberiak: My Cold War Adventure on the River Ob by Jenny Jaeckel went on sale October 15, 2014.
I received a copy free in a librarything giveway in exchange for an honest review.
November 16, 2014
*I received a copy of this book via Goodreads Giveaways*
In this graphic memoir, the author/illustrator relates her trip with an organised group of American students, in 1988. Destination: Siberia, Russia. The goal of the trip: Promote peace between two enemy countries by organizing activities involving groups of American and Russian youth.
The art: I agree with two previous reviewers when they point out the misleading cover. I was also expecting a totally different style of drawing, more detailed. When I flipped through the book for a first glance, I was a little disappointed. But once I started reading, I quickly approved of the simple style. Some drawings reminded me of the characters in Maus. For those who never heard of Maus, it's a graphic novel by Art Spiegelman famous for its depiction of humans as different kinds of animals (mostly mice and cats). Jenny Jackel's drawings are even more simplistic than Art Spiegelman's. If I could ask her one question, I'd like to know if she was inspired by Art's iconic characters. Don't get me wrong, I'm not accusing her of plagiarizing. Art Spiegelman doesn't have a monopoly on graphic novels with animals replacing humans, and Jenny has her own personal touch. I'm just wondering where she took her inspiration and who influenced her.
The story: Well written. I appreciated the author's honesty and capacity of self-introspection. For example, she admits her own shortcomings when she first met the other travellers, and it's easy to relate to her. I also liked how she pointed out some cultural differences between Russian and American young adults, many times with humour. I was hoping for something a little deeper though...More content relating to the Cold War context, and maybe a little more substance when it comes to the author's philosophy and opinions.
Overall, a pleasant book. I give it 4 stars for its graphic content, and 3 stars for the story, for a total of 3.5 stars (rounded up to 4).
In this graphic memoir, the author/illustrator relates her trip with an organised group of American students, in 1988. Destination: Siberia, Russia. The goal of the trip: Promote peace between two enemy countries by organizing activities involving groups of American and Russian youth.
The art: I agree with two previous reviewers when they point out the misleading cover. I was also expecting a totally different style of drawing, more detailed. When I flipped through the book for a first glance, I was a little disappointed. But once I started reading, I quickly approved of the simple style. Some drawings reminded me of the characters in Maus. For those who never heard of Maus, it's a graphic novel by Art Spiegelman famous for its depiction of humans as different kinds of animals (mostly mice and cats). Jenny Jackel's drawings are even more simplistic than Art Spiegelman's. If I could ask her one question, I'd like to know if she was inspired by Art's iconic characters. Don't get me wrong, I'm not accusing her of plagiarizing. Art Spiegelman doesn't have a monopoly on graphic novels with animals replacing humans, and Jenny has her own personal touch. I'm just wondering where she took her inspiration and who influenced her.
The story: Well written. I appreciated the author's honesty and capacity of self-introspection. For example, she admits her own shortcomings when she first met the other travellers, and it's easy to relate to her. I also liked how she pointed out some cultural differences between Russian and American young adults, many times with humour. I was hoping for something a little deeper though...More content relating to the Cold War context, and maybe a little more substance when it comes to the author's philosophy and opinions.
Overall, a pleasant book. I give it 4 stars for its graphic content, and 3 stars for the story, for a total of 3.5 stars (rounded up to 4).
December 29, 2014
(From an ARC.)
Jenny Jaeckel's graphic memoir Siberiak: My Cold war Adventure on the River Ob is a beautiful little work. Your enjoyment of it will probably depend greatly on your expectations. I didn't come into it with any expectations, so I was pleasantly surprised by the simple artwork, the delightful story, and the nuggets of history.
Notice, though, all the "sweet" and "delightful" words. Another review pointed out that there is no real conflict in the book, and that's the key weakness. Writers tend to be slave to the tyranny of the anecdote--afraid to depart from real life when writing about something that actually happened--and the problem is that real life often doesn't make for a good story. Don't get me wrong, this was really pleasant and interesting, and I plan to keep it. But it has the tone of a coffee table book more than a novel.
A note about the artwork: it is pretty simple for the most part, but intentionally so; the artist is obviously capable of complex drawings (there are a few scattered throughout). The clean lines and black-and-white work really well for this, as did the animal avatars, surprisingly.
As I write this I'm torn between three and four stars. I'm going to give it four on Goodreads, but I would consider it a 3.5.
Jenny Jaeckel's graphic memoir Siberiak: My Cold war Adventure on the River Ob is a beautiful little work. Your enjoyment of it will probably depend greatly on your expectations. I didn't come into it with any expectations, so I was pleasantly surprised by the simple artwork, the delightful story, and the nuggets of history.
Notice, though, all the "sweet" and "delightful" words. Another review pointed out that there is no real conflict in the book, and that's the key weakness. Writers tend to be slave to the tyranny of the anecdote--afraid to depart from real life when writing about something that actually happened--and the problem is that real life often doesn't make for a good story. Don't get me wrong, this was really pleasant and interesting, and I plan to keep it. But it has the tone of a coffee table book more than a novel.
A note about the artwork: it is pretty simple for the most part, but intentionally so; the artist is obviously capable of complex drawings (there are a few scattered throughout). The clean lines and black-and-white work really well for this, as did the animal avatars, surprisingly.
As I write this I'm torn between three and four stars. I'm going to give it four on Goodreads, but I would consider it a 3.5.
December 18, 2014
3.5 stars
Siberiak is a graphic memoir about Jaeckel's experiences during the end of the Cold War, when she took part in a young ambassadors program in Russia. The group of American students flew to Russia and joined up with a group of Russian students and together they took a journey down the river Ob, camping, speaking and laughing in pantomime, and partying by the campfire.
The art is cartoony, with animal headed characters playing out the travelogue, which fits with the lighthearted tone of the story. For the most part, relations between the two cultures are pleasant with the Russian communities being very open and welcoming. Conflicts are few and far between. The story is not riveting, being a soft narrative of a mostly peaceful journey with rained out roads and blisters from rowing. But though light, it was entertaining enough and interesting to learn that such delegations existed.
Note: This was an ARC provided by the publisher.
Siberiak is a graphic memoir about Jaeckel's experiences during the end of the Cold War, when she took part in a young ambassadors program in Russia. The group of American students flew to Russia and joined up with a group of Russian students and together they took a journey down the river Ob, camping, speaking and laughing in pantomime, and partying by the campfire.
The art is cartoony, with animal headed characters playing out the travelogue, which fits with the lighthearted tone of the story. For the most part, relations between the two cultures are pleasant with the Russian communities being very open and welcoming. Conflicts are few and far between. The story is not riveting, being a soft narrative of a mostly peaceful journey with rained out roads and blisters from rowing. But though light, it was entertaining enough and interesting to learn that such delegations existed.
Note: This was an ARC provided by the publisher.
October 30, 2014
It was easy to read this book-I won it as a first reads and received it in this morning's mail. I thought I'd take a quick look (as I'm currently reading something else) but once I opened it, I had to finish.First-I loved the feel, the size and colors of the front-lots of times I AM attracted to a book by it's cover!Siberiak is written in a cartoon format with sweetly drawn characters and simple,honest dialog (also-often very funny!).Although I'm in my upper 50's and this book is categorized as "young adult", the theme that people are not always what you expect is one which I've had to learn again and again, as I suppose most people do. I'm giving it to my 17 year-old daughter next and then my 78 year old mom. Can't wait to hear what they think!
November 7, 2014
What a lovely story! In 1988, Jenny, a precocious, non-conformist and hippie West American girl wins a three week long 'friendship' trip to the Soviet Union where she takes part in a mixed American - Russian camping, biking and rowing romp through Siberia on and along the River Ob. The story, told with lots of warmth, subtle humour and acute powers of observation, is a delight to read.
September 2, 2015
I loved the graphic as well as verbal humor. "Siberiak" is bursting with a fresh and youthful perspective. One of my favorite quotes from this unique travel memoir is: "We shared 'the same biology, regardless of ideology'" and "now we also shared the roads, the landscape, the sun...." I was impressed, also, by the witty use of visual space.
April 18, 2015
goodreads giveaway! such a cool little graphic novelette about a youth exchange to the Soviet USSR in the late 80's. I was interested because I had two friends do the very same thing but they didn't get to frolic on the Ob. very enjoyable, fun to look at!
May 15, 2015
The story was pretty good. The coming-of-age aspect worked better than the story as travelogue. More detailed illustrations would have been helpful in creating a sense of place perhaps. I liked the book but found its impact slight.
June 15, 2015
I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
January 5, 2015
Very enjoyable - great graphics, sweet story, interesting setting. Well worth a read!
*Goodreads First Read*
*Goodreads First Read*
March 29, 2015
Received free through GoodReads First Reads. Not a great reader of comic genre but I did enjoy this. Nicely illustrated. Didn't go where I thought it would but that didn't matter.
March 10, 2015
A fun story about an adventure in Russia in the 80s.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews