Making Bombs for Hitler – Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Dance Camp!

Just had the most wonderful visit with Green Grove Camp — a summer Ukrainian dance camp in Saskatchewan for Ukrainian Orthodox children and youth! Their teacher, Anya Shyian, let me know that the board had provided each participant with a copy of one of my books, so I mailed a personalized book plate for each of them. The questions were fantastic! So detailed and specific from so many different books and and times in my own life. I extended the session so that all questions could be answered, and extended again when a cluster of kids had more questions. I asked them to show me some of their dance moves — beautiful! And we ended with them dancing out of the room!!

Making Bombs makes the list!

Very thrilled to see Making Bombs for Hitler on the The Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s 50 Must-Read Canadian Middle Grade books in celebration of the Centre’s 50th anniversary! Such an honour to be included in this list that goes all the way back to Anne of Green Gables (1908!)

This is the original 2012 Canadian cover.

And all the others:

Roberts ES students always have such good questions!

Today was the 6th time media specialist extraordinaire Tiffanie Lifsey invited me to speak with her fifth grade students in Suwanee Georgia!

There were a lot of budding writers in the audience and many questions focused on that. For example, what does my editing process look like before I send a manuscript to the publisher? How many times in all does a manuscript for a novel go through editing? I think they were shocked by the answer.

There were also questions about the real people behind various characters, but this was the first time I was asked about how I researched for the character of Officer Schmidt, who made appearances in both Making Bombs and The War Below.

This is one of the classes at Roberts ES. I think there were 6 in all.

“You see me . . .” The Teaching Librarian

Thank you, Danny and Martha. It was such a pleasure to write this personal reflection for The Teaching Librarian magazine.

Full article here.

Riverside Elementary and why we read

Thank you, Kristin and Beth for the opportunity to speak with 5th grade Riverside Elementary students last Friday. This new crop of 5th grade students were as inquisitive, enthusiastic and respectful as always. I loved the opportunity to talk about how I wrote Making Bombs for Hitler and why I write on such serious topics for a young audience.

Speaking with Planeyo Book Circle

In 2024, I was honoured to see that Nigerian literary scholar, Eyoh Etim had written an insightful paper titled Memories of Women and Children’s Representation in Marsha Skrypuch’s Making Bombs for Hitler and Tiyam be Zeleza’s Smouldering Charcoal so when Dr. Etim contacted me for a video interview, I jumped at the opportunity to connect. Here’s the link to that interview. There are three authors interviewed in this session and my portion is at the beginning. Thank you, Dr. Etim, for all that you do!

Conversing with 7th grade students of JL Simpson MS

Met JL Simpson MS’s fantastic 7th grade students (11 classes!) and their educators via google meets this morning and yesterday morning. Most were familiar with Winterkill, Enough and Making Bombs for Hitler. I spoke of my own struggles with reading when I was a kid and how failing 4th grade and how that shaped me as a writer. The students’ questions demonstrated a lot of empathy and awareness of world events. Here are some of my fave pics. Thank you, Jennifer Maulfair for organizing!

Ms Maulfair passed on this feedback from the sessions:

“The reason why I am giving the presentation a 5 star review is because when she was explaining all the things that had happened to her I could just imagine how much she went through, and I was really into it.” JL Simpson, 7th Grade student, Leesburg, VA

“It was interesting to hear about Ms. Skrypuch’s early life and all of her challenges as a child. She also did a great job of answering complicated questions in a simple way.” JL Simpson, 7th Grade student, Leesburg, VA

Visiting with St. Sophia’s 10th grade students

This morning I did another presentation with St Sophia Religious Assn of Ukrainian Catholics, USA (Philadelphia). This audience was two 10th grade classes. Thank you so much for the invitation!

St. Sophia youth

It was such an honor to speak with the youth group at St. Sophia Religious Assn USA of Ukrainian Catholics this evening. Thank you, Iryna Ivankovych for the invitation. Students had read Making Bombs for Hitler and we talked about why I write what I write, Ukraine’s traumas over the last century and the intergenerational impact of war. A meaningful and heartfelt conversation.

UCC London book launch

Thank you so much, Olha Nowosad and all of the organizers for such a wonderful event last night. Coming back to the London Ukrainian Centre felt like coming home because I spent many a Saturday night here, at zabavas. It was a great way to get more use out of old bridesmaids’ gowns.

Here are some pics of the evening.