Ivan and the Informer

Ivan

by Myrna Grant

Ivan is still having problems. He refuses to join the Communist youth organisations and his classmates make fun of him because of it. Ivan is finding it difficult to make friends as the young people at school mock his faith. Boris tries to force him off the school hockey team, and his teacher tells him that Christians are not allowed to attend any university.
Just when Ivan thinks it can't get any worse, disaster strikes. Ivan is taken in for questioning by the police after he attends a secret Bible study. Suddenly even his Christian friends don't trust him anymore. Ivan knows there is an informer somewhere but everybody thinks it is him. How can Ivan clear his name? What will he do?

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Christian Fiction, Childrens, Adventure, Christian

128 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1969

About the author

Myrna Grant is a published author of children's books and young adult books. Some of the published credits of Myrna Grant include Ivan and the Informer, Ivan and the Moscow Circus (The Ivan Series), Ivan and the Daring Escape (Ivan).

Reviews

[Amy Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 This was a quick read, assigned as a read-aloud with MFW for the younger set in modern times to illustrate Communist Russia. It was very well done. It illustrated how difficult it was for Christians to maintain their faith and how they were persecuted or isolated or set against one another under the Communist regime. Even children were highly pressured.

Ivan is severely beaten by schoolmates in the book, and that made my younger kids cry, so a heads-up for sensitive children. But the conflict developed tension well, and we didn't want to put the book down. I think we read it in only five days, and that was because we didn't read it one or two days after starting; then we read the last half all in one sitting because we didn't want to stop.

[Stacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a fantastic book about the reality of living in communist Russia and being a Christian. This book had me at the edge of my seat! I read this to my 9 year old son and it was a wonderful way for him to discover the realities of living in a country where freedom is not practiced and just how controlling the government is in every aspect of your life, even the life of a 12 year old boy.

Ivan is a good boy who is smart and gets good grades. He loves ice hockey and his family. But his own teacher persecutes him when he won’t join the Young Communist League. He is even bullied by other boys for not joining. Then to make matters worse, his family comes under persecution because of their Christian faith and Ivan is set up for being an informer and his own Christian friends turn against him.


This is very well written and a must read to your children! My son and I loved this book!

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ivan and his friends had a birthday party but somehow the secret police discovered that it was actually a Bible study. His friends suspect that he was the informer and are wary of him. The secret police are pressuring Ivan for him to report on the Believers activities. Ivan is also being mistreated at school for being a Christian. This is a lot of a pressure for one boy to handle alone. How the police learned about the secret meeting is thoughtfully presented in a forgiving and loving manner.

[Dorothy Vandezande · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this aloud to my younger girls and we all really enjoyed it. It's inspiring and encouraging to follow Ivan's journey as a Christian in a Communist country, to read about his persecutions and temptations and to see the faithfulness of God. I want to get the rest of the series!

[Christopher Hachet · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is actually really good readable Christian YA fiction. Well developed believable characters, nice pacing, good plot development. I can't say enough good about the whole series. I read these as a boy and still love them!

[Rodger · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book in the Ivan series is a mystery as to who was the informer since Ivan and each of the others were interrogated by police after attending a birthday party. This book also has Ivan's conversion story (flashback retelling of when he decided to become a Christian.)

[Abigail Westbrook · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a super quick read aloud to go along with our studies of life in communist Russia. It is very engaging and the kids didn’t want me to stop reading. It’s also a sobering reminder to be grateful for the freedoms we enjoy here, and of the cost many have paid for following Christ.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book about a young Russian boy(12), facing the struggles of being a Christian in communist Russia. A great read for ages 8-12. Very mild content considering the context of the story.

[Stephen Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short-ish story of a boy in the Soviet Union, that is accused of being an informer after the police pick him up to question him about a secret Christian Bible study.

This book is picked by homeschool curriculums as an historical fictional account of what Christians have/may have experienced in eras of oppression. This book is part of a series and may need to be read with the series to fully appreciate. Just lumping it into a stack of repetitive required reading material on the same subject can make even this smaller book a chore to get through, rather than a story to enjoy.

⚠️Parental Warnings ⚠️
None

[Daniel Amador · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author had good intentions, but the writing wasn’t quite executed very well. Ivan and the Informer was fun, though; it wasn’t a painful read, and it was very short. It’s also pretty cool to be reading a book that both my parents had read in their childhood, both in different countries across the ocean. It must have been pretty popular, at least among Christian circles, sometime around the 70s-80s.

[megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

(at least that's how i remember it)