I Wish I Didn’t Have To Tell You This

I WISH I DIDN’T HAVE TO TELL YOU THIS was written and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin, a Russian-born American author and an artist of many formats and talents including character and set design for movies and commercials.

Proclaimed one of Candlewick Press’s Stars of the Year for 2025, I WISH I DIDN’T HAVE TO TELL YOU THIS was also honored in February 2026 as the 2025 National Jewish Book Award in the Young Adult Literature category. Even more recently it received the 2026 Children’s Book Council Favorites Award. Wow.

Congratulations, Mr. Yelchin. I requested a free copy to review for this blog post, and I am so glad I did. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend you do. I loved the story so much, I was compelled to reach for more of Eugene Yelchin’s books for kids. This is as much a promotion of Mr. Yelchin as it is of one of his stories.

I WISH I DIDN’T HAVE TO TELL YOU THIS is a YA graphic novel. Its illustrations and characters are as intriguing as the diabolical storyline. And yet, it is a memoir. Mr. Yelchin grew up behind the iron curtain in the USSR and only immigrated to the United States at age 27. There is a love interest, genuine family bonds, and details of daily life and strife that tear at your heart knowing that someone actually lived this tale. The title (a line in the story -page 266) is also a reference to the sad truth about life in Communist Russia under the Brezhnev regime. Mr. Yelchin’s illustrations offer an almost comical relief to the overwhelming feelings of bewilderment this graphic novel leaves you with. You wonder how in the relatively modern era can this happen? And yet, sadly it still does. Stories are a powerful tool in divulging history.

Yelchin also illustrated the other books I reviewed for this post. He is indeed a talented man but like most young people, it took him a while to discover this.

Having read about his teenage years, I was curious to know more. In 2021, Yelchin produced an award-winning MG memoir, THE GENIUS UNDER THE TABLE (Candlewick Press). This story shares with us Yelchin’s most prolific memories from age 6 to 12 in 1970’s Leningrad. Growing up, he was happy. He lived in one room with his entire family in a community apartment. Yelchin treasured his sleeping spot under the kitchen table, hidden by the table cover for the privacy it provided. But Eugene was also troubled. Privileges were awarded to those who brought honor to the country through art and athletics, and Eugene had no such talent. He couldn’t skate like his brother; he couldn’t dance like Barishnokov. He was nothing special until his father discovered his drawings on the underside of the table. The artist was born.

Now famous for his art and writing, Yelchin strives to share his ideals with young people. Yelchin’s website promotes 29 books for children including PB, MG, and YA. I was inspired to read his MG Newbury Honor Award winner BREAKING STALIN’S NOSE (Henry Holt, 2011).

BREAKING STALIN’S NOSE is a short and to the point representation of life under Joseph Stalin in Moscow in the 1950’s. I appreciate Yelchin’s ability to share these horrors in a way children can understand. The fear and deception people accepted as patriotism has me hoping young readers can learn from the past.

There is a recording on his website in which Yelchin tells us that his books turn out to be about freedom and the unalienable rights of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Yelchin states that he hopes through his books…

“young readers might view their unalienable rights in a slightly different light. They might become more (attentive) to what they inherit. They might consider that preserving those rights requires personal courage. They might not take the pursuit of happiness lightly. That in fact as my protagonists show, happiness is sometimes only achieved at great risk of both life and liberty.”

A true artist, Eugene Yelchin received the SCBWI Tomie DePaola award for illustrators in 2006 as well as numerous other writing accolades such as these:

In 2021 The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain was awarded the Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Honor Award.

In 2018 The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge he co-authored with Matthew Tobin Anderson was named National Book Award Finalist.

In 2010 his illustrations for The Rooster Prince of Breslov received a National Jewish Book Award.

In 2017 his novel The Haunting of Falcon House received Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators’ Golden Kite Award.