Sarah Smith’s reading guides for Bombs trilogy

A while ago an educator contacted me, letting me know that she was creating reading guides for my first WWII trilogy. Educators make reading guides of my books all the time, frequently getting basics wrong (even misspelling my name) so I was impressed that she approached me first. I asked if she’d show them to me when she was finished, and she kindly did just that. They’re excellent, and available via teacherspayteachers. Here are the links for each of them:

Stolen Girl guide

Making Bombs for Hitler guide

The War Below guide

Audible edition

Canadian taxpayers have funded a Russian propaganda film

Here is the core of the letter that I’ve sent to my MPP and MP. Please feel free to model your own letters from this.

There is a new pro-Russian documentary titled Russians at War currently being shown at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). This propaganda piece was partly funded by Canadian taxpayers. This is a worldwide humiliation for Canada, that we would allow public funding to normalize the genocidal acts of Russian soldiers in Ukraine.

The filmmaker is Anastasia Trofimova, a Russian Canadian. She imbedded herself into a Russian unit as they invaded Ukraine. Is it not treasonous for a Canadian to accompany the invasion of one of our allies?

Ms. Trofimova claims that she embedded herself at great personal risk. Given that an American-Russian ballet dancer was jailed in Russia for merely donating $50 to a Ukrainian charity, this claim doesn’t hold water. This filmmaker has done many documentaries for Russia Today (RT), a Russian propaganda outlet banned in Canada. This film is propaganda, with the goal of “normalizing” Russian soldiers who volunteer to go to Ukraine to rape, steal and kill. It was produced in association with TVO and BC’s Knowledge Network, and partly funded through the Canada Media Fund (CMF), that gets its funding from the federal government and telecommunications companies.

In the short term, please demand that TIFF delist the film and post a public apology.

The larger question is how did we let this happen? Canadian taxpayers’ money should not be used to fund Russian propaganda.

Kidnapped from Ukraine: audiobook

Love having the opportunity to speak the backmatter and acknowledgements for the audio editions of my books. Today, I did that for Kidnapped from Ukraine: Under Attack, Scholastic. Thank you, Will Crann at Catherine North Studios in Hamilton! I have deep respect for professional narrators who do this all the time.