Grisha: A Soviet Cat, Christina’s sixth children’s book, is the first of a five-book series (The Grisha Tales) about the adventures of a rescue cat in the 1980s Soviet Union. In this first story, Maria, a factory worker, defies her boss to save a young kitten, but getting him home proves a bit of a challenge for her and her little daughter, Lena.

Christina first drafted the Grisha tales in the early Aughts when she was starting to translate Maria Shelyakhovskaya’s memoir, Being Grounded in Love, into English. The stories were inspired both by Christina’s historical research and by real cats (there was a real Grisha!) and people whom Christina met in Ukraine, Russia, and at home in the US. Ultimately, Christina hopes that the Grisha series will both pique interest in the history of Eastern Europe (about which many Westerners remain woefully uninterested and uninformed) and to show that people can always choose to act compassionately despite challenging circumstances.

Proceeds from the sales of the Grisha series will be donated to a charity in Kyiv, Ukraine, which cares for widows, orphans, and wounded Armed Forces of Ukraine service members.