A merry postal elf just dropped off a box filled with author copies of Making Bombs, in French!
Making Bombs — French edition!
Author: Marsha
I write historical fiction, mostly from the perspective of young people who are thrust in the midst of war.
A hat trick for my WWII trilogy
Underground Soldier is a STARRED selection for CCBC’s Best Books for Kids & Teens!
Stolen Child and Making Bombs for Hitler were starred selections in previous year. So happy for Larissa, Lida and Luka!
A visit to Near North Schools — video by Karen Upper, library lady extraordinaire
One Step At A Time: a youtube interview with the author
Join me on Nov 23, 2014
JoAnne Richards’ little library in the near north
Library Ladies extraordinaire Karen Upper and JoAnne Richards invited Natalie Hyde and myself up to the Parry Sound area for a series of carefully coordinated school visits. Karen and JoAnne kindly hosted me and Natalie in their own homes, and we were treated like royalty! We also got a chance to see for ourselves JoAnne’s famous little library of the near north, which is at the end of her drive. Here’s JoAnne, me and Natalie, little library in the background.
MYRCA day with students from William S. Patterson School
French editon of Making Bombs!
To be published in Feb 2015.
Éditions Scholastic
LibrisNotes review of Dance of the Banished made my day!
Wow! Speak about thorough and enthusiastic review! Thank you, Libris Notes!
My favourite quote is this: “Dance of the Banished is an excellent piece of historical fiction and Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch’s best work to date.”
Thank you Penny Draper and the National Reading Campaign for this wonderful review!
Children’s Book Review: Dance of the Banished
Zeynep, fierce and bold, and Ali, caring and principled, live in the same village in Anatolia and plan to marry. Unexpectedly, Ali is sent to Canada and Zeynep is left behind. Each writes in a journal for the other, but as war comes to both countries it is unlikely their words will ever be shared. Still, they keep on. Zeynep writes an eyewitness account of the genocide from the point of view of the Alevi Kurds, telling a little known side of this tragic story. Ali, in turn, gives an accounting of life in an internment camp in, surprisingly, Kapuskasing. For each, the journal entries are a coping mechanism, a way to bear witness to the atrocities of war and ultimately, to bring justice.
Skrypuch’s compelling characters give an authentic voice to this well researched story. It is definitely a book for adults as well as teens. And although it is a story of war it includes moments of great joy, making it much more than a tragedy. Whether together in Turkey or alone in banishment, both Zeynep and Ali are able to lose themselves when they dance. Their troubles are momentarily forgotten in an ecstasy of whirling that reminds us of the cyclical nature of human events. Preserving the past, as Skrypuch does so well, is part of that cycle.
Dance of the Banished
By Marsha Skrypuch
978-1-927485-65-1
Pajama Press
August 22, 2014
288 pp
Ages 12+
Penny Draper lives in Victoria, British Columbia. She is the author of the award-winning “Disaster Strikes!” series, historical fiction that places young protagonists at the centre of real Canadian disasters.
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