writes about war from a young person's view #bannedbyrussia
I got to read the backmatter for the Scholastic audiobook edition of Standoff, book #2 of my Kidnapped from Ukraine trilogy. Melanie Gagnon, the producer, arranged for me to do the recording at Catherine North Studios in Hamilton. Thanks, Emma Whale, producer/engineer for making the session such a great experience! This is the 8th time that I got to read my own backmatter!
Met JL Simpson MS’s fantastic 7th grade students (11 classes!) and their educators via google meets this morning and yesterday morning. Most were familiar with Winterkill, Enough and Making Bombs for Hitler. I spoke of my own struggles with reading when I was a kid and how failing 4th grade and how that shaped me as a writer. The students’ questions demonstrated a lot of empathy and awareness of world events. Here are some of my fave pics. Thank you, Jennifer Maulfair for organizing!
Ms Maulfair passed on this feedback from the sessions:
“The reason why I am giving the presentation a 5 star review is because when she was explaining all the things that had happened to her I could just imagine how much she went through, and I was really into it.” JL Simpson, 7th Grade student, Leesburg, VA
“It was interesting to hear about Ms. Skrypuch’s early life and all of her challenges as a child. She also did a great job of answering complicated questions in a simple way.” JL Simpson, 7th Grade student, Leesburg, VA
Thrilled to reveal the cover for book #3, to be published on April 21, 2026!
Here are all three books:
Wanted to get a picture of these before I gave some away. Met with four of my longtime writer friends yesterday over lunch and wanted a special pysanka for each. Gary Barwin, musician and author of many books of poetry, kids books and novels, including the hilarious Yiddish for Pirates got the giant bird on green background. That’s a parrot, inspired by what’s on the cover of Yiddish for Pirates. Judy Ann Sadler writes picture books, including her most recent, The Digger Dance, but she is also the queen of craft books — she’s had them published regularly since the 1990s! I had to give her something creative, so she got a red bird pysanka. Gillian Chan, author of historical fiction and fantasy, just finished an exciting new novel, and green is her favourite colour. She also loves fish motifs so she got the green pysanka with a circle of fish. Barbara Haworth Attard, who writes historical fiction, plus one of my all-time favourite contemporary novels, Theories of Relativity, one of the first YA novels about homelessness, loves to quilt when she isn’t writing, so she got the pysanka with the bees and the yellow pinwheel pattern which is much like a quilting motif. (I gave each a quail pysanka as well.)
This morning I did another presentation with St Sophia Religious Assn of Ukrainian Catholics, USA (Philadelphia). This audience was two 10th grade classes. Thank you so much for the invitation!
It was such an honor to speak with the youth group at St. Sophia Religious Assn USA of Ukrainian Catholics this evening. Thank you, Iryna Ivankovych for the invitation. Students had read Making Bombs for Hitler and we talked about why I write what I write, Ukraine’s traumas over the last century and the intergenerational impact of war. A meaningful and heartfelt conversation.
I had seven quail eggs and two XS eggs cleaned and ready to go last week but had to put them all away because work intruded. Our family stuff was on Friday and Saturday, so on Easter Sunday and Monday, I dragged out the pysanky dyes and kistkas again, listened to music and wrote nine more pysanky. I like doing mini versions of designs I’ve already become familiar with. It’s fun doing two-toned pysanky as well, especially on the littlest eggs.
It was such a pleasure to speak with 5th grade students from Roberts Elementary in Suwanee GA on Good Friday morning. Virtually visiting Roberts has become something of an annual tradition! Here are pics from one of the participating classes. Students asked thoughtful questions and made good connections between my WWII novels and Under Attack: Kidnapped from Ukraine, set during Putin’s current war on Ukraine.
Happy Easter, Happy Spring. Hoping and praying for a just peace in Ukraine.