writes about war from a young person's view #bannedbyrussia
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!
Thrilled to reveal the cover for book #3, to be published on April 21, 2026!
Here are all three books:
Thank you, Paulette MacQuarrie, for this great interview with myself and Chrystyna about our books for kids that are set during Russia’s war upon Ukraine. I consider Chrystyna’s book to be somewhat of a prequel to mine, since hers is set in 2014, during the invasion of Crimea, while mine is set in Feb 2022 in Mariupol, when Russia continued its war. The book in the middle, Ukrainian Food Flair, was edited by Paulette and is available on Amazon. The recipes are GREAT — especially the sweets!
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.
Thank you, Becky, for this wonderful review of Under Attack.
I am particularly gratified with this paragraph:
My thoughts: What a novel!!!! Truly I cannot do the book justice. It’s an incredible read from cover to cover. I am not surprised–I’d expect nothing less from Skrypuch. She excels at everything–writing, plotting, characterization. But it is the characterization that particularly wows me every time. Because though it shouldn’t be rare, it mostly is. The depth of characterization is outstanding. It isn’t just that there’s depth and substance of the main character, but it is how expansive the characterization is. There’s no shortcuts, no character too small to not get treated as important. It makes it impossible not to get invested and thoroughly absorbed in the story.
It was a pleasure to speak with Sérgio about my brand new book, Under Attack. Thanks so much for the interview!
Under Attack will be published tomorrow, but I got to do two presentations at one of my all-time favorite schools — Riverside Elementary in Suwanee GA with one of my all-time favorite library media specialists, Kristin Bartholomew!! The students were absolutely fabulous and it was a great way to kick off 2025.
