A shout-out to Karen Autio

Karen Autio is a gifted author of books for children and she’s written from a broad range of themes, most recently, inclusion and friendship.

I first met Karen decades ago but we live at opposite ends of the country so don’t see each other that often. We met up before the launch and had dinner together and then throughout the launch, she looked after me, bringing cookies, making sure I didn’t lose things, taking pictures.

Check out her books! They are WONDERFUL!

Karen Autio

Koota Ooma book launch!

Dare I say that I absolutely LOVE Koota Ooma? And it’s not just because a book display like this is every author’s dream. It’s also because the entire Koota Ooma team is just so nice and knowledgeable about Ukrainian-themed books and Ukrainian language books. They also have the BEST and unique Ukrainian items, like clothing, houseware and jewelry.

Here are some photos from the event.

Visiting Josyf Cardinal Slipyj School

It is always such a pleasure visiting students and educators at Josyf Cardinal Slipyj Catholic School in Etobicoke! Ms Daciuk had a big stack of books all sorted and ready to sign — Koota Ooma Ukrainian Bookstore kindly got books over to the school before my visit.

A big crowd of students packed into the tiny gym and I presented Under Attack, comparing Russia’s current actions of kidnapping and brainwashing Ukrainian children to what Nazi Germany did in WWII to Polish and Ukrainian children in their Lebensborn program.