A Letter for Daria

by Ekaterina Gordeeva, Gordeeva Ekaterina, Antonina W. Bouis

The Olympic gold medal-winning skater talks about her daughter Daria, with reflections on her own mother and grandmother, and advice for Daria

Genres: Figure Skating, Nonfiction, Sports, Biography Memoir, Russia, Memoir, Biography

83 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Ekaterina "Katia" Alexandrovna Gordeeva is a Russian (Former Soviet) figure skater. Together with her partner and husband, the late Sergei Grinkov, she was the 1988 and 1994 Olympic Chapion and four-time World Champion in Pairs Skating. After Grinkov's death, Gordeeva continued performing as a singles skater.

Reviews

[Majenta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous and touching!

[Kathryn D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still sitting on my desk patiently waiting for me to pick it up again :)

My mother and I both read this book towards the end of last year and we loved it! I had already read "My Sergei" at that time and enjoyed that book much more because it goes into greater depth of the love story G&G shared.

This is a perfect selection of stories Katya has shared with Dasha and a great way for a mother to send her daughter off into the world :)

Filled with keepsakes, wishes, and dreams for her daughter, Katya did it again! :D

[Amber · Rating 2 out of 5]

My mom gave me this book to read it was very cute. Fast read. The book is only 80 some pages.

[Surreysmum · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting - I'm not really sure exactly who the target audience for this book is. Adolescent females in Gordeeva's fan base? Children? Mothers with children? In any case, it is not nearly as saccharine and oversold as it could be, despite the plethora of cute pictures of Katia and Daria. This is chiefly due to Gordeeva's straightforward, no-nonsense personality. Her observations on the kind of upbringing she had, and the changes she has made for her own daughter are interesting, and there is enough biographical material regarding her life and her career to make this worth keeping in the collection.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nice story, almost like a long letter written to Katya's daughter Daria (or Dasha, her Russian nickname). It has joy, sadness, wisdom and some humor as well. Our girls thought this book was just okay, but they liked the pictures. I thought it was a nice way to convey some of my sentiments to them through reading the book. We only read a couple of pages at a time so it wasn't too boring for them.

[Lennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ekaterina dedicated this book to her daughter, Daria. In it, she expresses all the hope that she has for her child and stresses the importance of family, giving an example of her own grandmother who supported and inspired Ekaterina while she was growing up. I think this book is a beautiful way to express the love a mother has for her daughter.

[Heidi-Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A going-away present from my friends, including the one who first introduced me to figure skating and thus my favorite pairs team. This is Ekaterina writing to her then-young daughter Daria about her father Sergei.

[Cindi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of course this book means a lot to me 1 - I am a huge fan of Ekaterina Gordeeva and I love the details she shares about her life with and for her daughter and 2 - I named my daughter after hers - 'Daria' :)

[Mary Elizabeth Morton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet & sentimental. What a great way for Ekaterina to help her young daughter Daria remember her Daddy & her heritage.

[Pis4Piglet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very heartwarming story of an awesome figure skating family.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had this laying around & didn't even realize it was a kid's book till I started reading it. Haha. Very cute book though.

[Loretta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet gift to her daughter & memorial to her late husband.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Mary Van Winkle · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I wait patiently for my copy of My Sergei to arrive weeks after I ordered it, I went ahead and ordered Katia's second book, this one for her daughter. Yes, it arrived and I read it before the first book even made it in my state. A very cute, sweet and short book. It takes no time at all to read it. You read Katia explaining the importance of grandmothers (babushkas) and Russian summer houses (dachas). She also touches on a few topics that came up in My Sergei like Katia's father's strictness and the family dynamics of the women in her family. She tells Daria a bit about her start as a skater and her current (at the time of this book) career. It feels like you're reading a conversation between mother and daughter and it's very special for that. It makes me wish all women had the time or motivation to keep just a little journal or scrapbook with family history, stories or bits of wisdom to hand off to their daughters at some point.



It is an interesting glimpse but a bit odd to read it now, nearly 30 years after it was written. Katia wrote this for her toddler. Daria is now 31 years old. You read things like Katia's hope Daria will marry young knowing that didn't happen. As a child Daria liked the spotlight but as an adult, Daria leads a mostly private life. Her last Instagram post details that she really doesn't enjoy the life-long attention that she always received. It seems that since her father died so early in her life, she doesn't have many memories of him although she loves him. I know from experience it's hard to understand people's sympathy or questions/expectations when they bring up the subject of a deceased parent you didn't know. I think it's had its toll on her and I hope the same things her mother wished for her at the time of this book: knowledge, peace and love.

[ladywriter · Rating 5 out of 5]

this felt so personal to read. this was a quick read considering it is very short.

[fiona · Rating 2 out of 5]

kind of a disappointment (i guess just not what i hoped for), the pictures are nice though

[Mellanie C]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13118537