writes about war from a young person's view #bannedbyrussia
Standoff, book 2 of my #KidnappedfromUkraine trilogy just popped up as number one for hot new releases in its category on both Amazon.com and Amazon.ca today. Standoff will be published on Oct 7th. Book 3 is also number 5 on the dot com site and 3 on the dot ca site. Readers of Under Attack, book one, have commented that reading it helped them understand on a visceral level what it’s like to be a kid in Ukraine right now.
I’m not writing; I’m not editing. This is a rather strange feeling. Instead, I’m spending a lot of time outdoors.
I watched this great spangled fritillary butterfly coming out of its cocoon this morning. (Update: ack! This is actually the butterfly being attacked by a goldenrod crab spider!! Thanks Linda Mikolayenko for that dose of reality!)
It was such a pleasure to speak with 7th grade students at JL Simpson Middle School this May. This is the second year in a row that I’ve virtually visited with all 11 classes. Students are well-prepared and avid readers and I really admire their teachers because they know how to combo a whole lot of learning for maximum effect. I got this package in the mail — thank you notes from the kids, and also from Jennifer, media specialist extraordinaire. But these aren’t just any thank-you notes. Students created thank you notes for me to use as thank you notes! The outside of each note card has student-created art based on a scene from one of my books. On the back of the cards is the student’s name and the name of the book that inspired their art. So a learning opportunity that combines art, literature, history, communications and courtesy! Wow!
Thrilled to be giving the Claire Mackay memorial lecture at the annual CANSCAIP Packaging Your Imagination one-day conference. My topic: Writing from the Shadows. Before I was published in book-form, this conference was the one that jump-started my career. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in writing or illustrating books for young people. Here’s the full program.
Standoff will be published on Oct 7th, but I got my first author copy late last week. A shattering book to write, but I hope it will help readers step into the shoes of Rada and her father as they endure the siege of Azovstal.
It was such a pleasure to do a book chat about Silver Threads with day campers from St Sophia Religious Assn of Ukrainian Catholics, USA. Thank you, Iryna Ivankovych for the invitation. You are an inspiration, as are your students.
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It is such an honour to have my WWI novel, Dance of the Banished, finally available in a Turkish language edition. Thank you Qizilbas Publishers, Britanya Alevi Federasyonu, Pajama Press and Catherine Mitchell, for making this happen.
Hearty congratulations to Dr. Mateusz Świetlicki for winning the 2025 book award for best monograph from the International Research Society for Children’s Literature for his groundbreaking work: Next-Generation Memory and Ukrainian Canadian Children’s Historical Fiction. The Seeds of Memory. This is the first book to explore Anglophone Ukrainian Canadian children’s historical fiction published between 1991 and 2021.
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!
