Author: Marsha

I write historical fiction, mostly from the perspective of young people who are thrust in the midst of war.

So much fun to present at the 2014 MASC Young Authors’ Conference

Here are all of us MASC presenters, from left to right: Martin Springett, Art Slade, Ruth Ohi, Vikki VanSickle, me, Richard Scrimger, Marthe Jocelyn, Lesley Livingston.

Here is me, with Art Slade, the world’s fastest talker. We were each given 2 minutes to introduce ourselves and Art delivered his auctioneer style. You should have seen the look of awe on the kids’ faces!

MASC was held from Tuesday to Thursday at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum — a FABULOUS venue! On the Monday before, I presented at two Ottawa library branches, plus gave a presentation for the local Ukrainian community.

 

When Mama Goes to Work — nice review from the Midwest Review

When Mama Goes to Work
Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, author
Jessica Phillips, illustrator
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
311 Washington Street, Brighton, MA 02135
9781554553143, $18.95, www.fitzhenry.ca

 

“When Mama Goes to Work” is a cheerful descriptive book for preschool and up children about daily routines of both parent and child when Mama goes to work. Filled with beautiful color illustrations of families with skin tones of black, brown, white, and tan, “When Mama Goes to Work” presents a positive, upbeat attitude towards the experience of separate schedules of mother and child during the day. Both mother and child have prepared for their busy days by wearing appropriate clothes, and packing a lunch in a special bag. Sometimes there is a pleasant surprise in the lunch bag left by mother or child (like a spider toy or a valentine note)! Both mother and child are busy all day long, work with different tools, and get things done. Both smile (this is important). Both think of each other during their day and also miss each other. But the child knows that Mama will be back. The end of the day brings reunion, coming home, changing clothes, cooking, eating, books and reading, and bedtime. The child dreams of growing up and working with tools, being busy all day long, and smiles. One nice touch in “When Mama Goes to Work” is the pictured occupations for the mother, which include doctor, construction worker, and astronaut. Cheery text and happy faces in the illustrations help teach the young child that Mama going to work is a good thing, and an adult goal to aspire to.

Author completes Second World War trilogy

by Michelle Ruby, Brantford Expositor.

The release of the third book in a Second World War trilogy by city author Marsha Skrypuch couldn’t be more timely.

The young readers’ novel, Underground Soldier, tells the story of the terrorization, enslavement and killing of Ukrainians by both the Soviets and the Nazis.

The underground army formed by Ukrainians included people of many nationalities and ages with one thing in common — the desire to live in a democratic country.

“This parallels the Euromaidan conflict where regular people of all ages and nationalities took to the streets and proclaimed they would rather die than take the corruption anymore,” said Skrypuch. “It just goes to show how timely history can be.”

Underground Soldier is the story of 14-year-old Luka, who works as an Ostarbeiter in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, alongside Lida from Making Bombs for Hitler, the second book in the trilogy, which began with Stolen Child.

Desperate to escape the brutal conditions of a Nazi slave camp, Luka manages to break free by hiding in a truck under a pile of dead bodies and joins a group of Ukrainian resistance fighters.

Caught between advancing Nazis in the west and Soviet troops in the east, they mount guerrilla raids, help POW escapees and do all they can to make life hard for the Nazis and Soviets. After the war, Luka must decide whether to follow Lida to Canada or stay in Europe and search for his long-lost mother.

“They were 10 years in the making,” said Skrypuch of the trilogy. “Finishing it feels like a relief but there is also a sadness. The characters were in my head for so long.”

Underground Soldier is the prolific, award-winning city author’s 18th published book.

Skrypuch will be in Toronto on Wednesday as one of five nominees for the $25,000 Kobzar Literary Award for Making Bombs for Hitler. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to Canadian literary arts by an author who develops a Ukrainian Canadian theme with literary merit in one of several genres, including literary non-fiction, fiction, poetry, young readers’ literature, plays, screenplays and musicals.

Although Skrypuch said she has written more on Ukraine than anyone else in Canada, this is her first nomination for the biennial Kobzar.

Most of Skrypuch’s works are fiction but she bases all of her stories on detailed research. Of great help on Underground Soldier, she said, was Peter J. Potichnyj, professor emeritus at McMaster University who was a teen soldier in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and has written extensively about it.

Skrypuch said she is closely following the ongoing demonstrations and revolution in Ukraine.

“I’m so proud of the people. It’s a very civil revolution. All they want is freedom. It’s a wave of democracy. In the long run, it’s the most beautiful thing that could possibly have happened to Ukraine.”

In the meantime, acclaim for Skrypuch’s books continues. The non-fiction One Step at a Time, which is based on Brantford resident Tuyet Yurczyszyn, is shortlisted for the Silver Birch award with winners to be announced in May.

She also has a new young adult novel scheduled for release in August to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War. Dance of the Banished is partly set in Brantford.

michelle.ruby@sunmedia.ca

 

A Christmas to Remember

A Christmas To Remember is a wonderful seasonal anthology for Dear Canada readers, both old and new! A real treat for fans of this series, and all lovers of historical fiction!

Eleven stories that each revisit a favourite character from books in the Dear Canada series are included in this special collection. These are completely original tales that stand alone as heartwarming Christmas stories, but also serve as a lovely “next chapter” to their original books. Each story is written by one of Canada’s top award-winning writers for children, including Marsha Skrypuch, Jean Little, Sarah Ellis, Maxine Trottier, Carol Matas and more. This collection is a lovely companion to A Season of Miracles, and will be treasured year after year at holiday time!

Kobzar’s Children

This unique anthology introduces new voices and a century of hidden stories.

The kobzars were the blind minstrels of Ukraine, who memorized the epic poems and stories of 100 generations. Traveling around the country, they stopped in towns and villages along the way, where they told their tales and were welcomed by all. Under Stalin’s regime, the kobzars were murdered. As the storytellers of Ukraine died, so too did their stories.

Kobzar’s Children is an anthology of short historical fiction, memoirs, and poems written about the Ukrainian immigrant experience. The stories span a century of history; and they contain stories of internment, homesteading, famine, displacement, concentration camps, and this new century’s Orange Revolution. Edited by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, Kobzar’s Children is more than a collection; it is a moving social document that honors the tradition of the kobzars and revives memories once deliberately forgotten.
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Hope’s War

Kataryna Balyk, a gifted fine arts student, is hoping to have a fresh start at Cawthra School for the Arts, after a less-than-successful year at the neighbouring Catholic high school.

But her hopes for a peaceful grade ten are shattered when she comes home from one of her first days at Cawthra and finds the RCMP interrogating her grandfather Danylo Feschuk. Kat learns that Danylo is accused of being a policeman for the Nazis in World War II Ukraine, and what’s worse, he is suspected of having participated in atrocities against civilians.

When the story is exposed in the local newspaper, Kat and her family become the centre of a media storm. Her grades in school and her relationships with friends suffer. Her only support comes from her family and Ian, a classmate with whom she discovers she has more in common than just artistic promise.
Continue reading “Hope’s War”