Escape from Chernobyl by Andy Marino

I first read The Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman, which got me interested in the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. I wanted to read more, so I picked up this action-packed book about various teenagers escaping, returning, surviving, and not surviving the famous nuclear reactor meltdown of 1986. Chernobyl was a large nuclear reactor located in what is now Ukraine, but at the time was part of the Soviet Union. The Soviet government did not want word to get out that their nuclear reactor had exploded, so rather than evacuate and try to save the lives of innocent people, they waited while pretending that there was not dangerous radiation in the air. This story follows a teen who works in the nuclear reactor as well as some others who live in the nearby city. I didn't feel a strong connection to the characters, but this was worth reading to learn about the Chernobyl disaster and how it affected young people.