Siberia: A Novel by Ann Halam (2005)

I was looking for children's books that could help explain the whole Soviets sending people to Siberia process and came upon this interesting book, though not what I needed. This is a science fiction story set in a post ecological disaster world, where most of it is frozen and Siberia refers to a state of mind rather than an exact place. When Rosita and her mother end up in a shack in a dismal frozen village and her mother has to work all day, and she is taught little about truth in school, it sounds too much like the experiences of my people and many others the soviets tortured by sending them off to labor camps and dismal villages in the far reaches of Siberia.

The story itself reminds me more of the Golden Compass, where kids are traveling with a goal, get in all sorts of trouble and are befriended by animals. Rosita, who becomes Sloe in school, ends up being the caretaker of the seeds of all the animals of the planet that have been destroyed by the misuse of the planet. She is sent to an awful boarding school, lives with gypsy types for a while, lands in a fur farm, etc., etc.