writes about war from a young person's view #bannedbyrussia
I have been corresponding with Cristofer Mattern, librarian-extraordinaire at Deretchin school for several years so when I finally got to present in person, it felt like coming home.
All of the presentations and lunches were in the library, which was a cozy and comfortable place to do them. I got so many heartfelt questions and responses from kids and educators — just wonderful!
When librarian Monica Wetzig brought me in to her library, one of the very first students I met was a girl who had come in to see me, but also one who Ms Wetzig had selected to eat lunch with me. It turned out the student was ecstatic. She had come into the library to give me a special gift because we shared a heritage — she was also Ukrainian — plus she loves my books. Ms Wetzig had no idea she was Ukrainian, just that she was an avid reader. It was especially sweet that she was selected for that reason! She brought me a Ukrainian flag and socks!
And she drew this flag for me, with a special message on the other side.
A whirlwind of presentations and lunch chats. A fantastic day!
| Jennifer C. Minichiello greeted me with a giant table of books to sign, and as the day progressed, the piles grew taller. I think there were even more than at Mitchell, but I managed to get them all signed over the day! |
The cafetorium was big enough to hold half the 5th grade students at a time, so I did two back to back 45 minute presentations in the morning. Kudos to Jennifer who was able to get the students in and out so efficiently.
The middle of the day was a combo of book signings and having lunch with students (one of my favorite things to do!)
In the afternoon, it was time for 6th grade students, again, in two 45 minute sessions, back to back.
Here are the students who came up to the front to ask questions — and they were GREAT!
Tuesday October 17th was the day for my Dolly Vogel visit. Librarian Michelle Thomas expertly organized two assemblies and lunch visits with students, and I also got to do my all-time favorite thing, which was to give a writers’ workshop. The students in the workshop were FANTASTIC! Wonderful brainstorming session, followed by a very brief time to write, but every single participating student wrote up a storm and every student shared their writing with me. In fact, nearly all of the students read their works aloud to everyone in the workshop, which can be daunting, seeing as they were selected from all different classes. Here are some pics from the assemblies.
I was so excited to finally have this visit happen. MaryEllen Bryant, librarian-extraordinaire, and I have been corresponding since the fall of 2019. There was a trip in place way back then for me to visit 5 Conroe ISD schools in the spring of 2020. Who knew in the fall of 2019 that such plans were for naught?
MaryEllen warned me that there would be a LOT of books to sign, so I made sure to have several of my favorite sharpies on hand. She was not kidding! First picture is for posterity. Second is us goofing it up.
All of the 5th grade students came in for an assembly in the morning — 600! And in the afternoon, 600 6th grade students came in. I always save lots of time for Q&A and with big groups, ask for educators to select a number of students to come up to the front to ask those questions. Here are some of the questioners:
There were also a number of Ukrainian students at the school, and so they came forward so I could meet them:
Best moment? The group hug:
In the middle of the day there was time for autographing all those books, plus lunch, with selected students cycling through.
The school day ended and I still had two giant cases of books to sign, so MaryEllen grabbed one case and I took the other and we loaded them into the trunk of my rental car. I was seeing her again on Wednesday night for dinner and that would give me time to get them all autographed up.
It’s a dream come true to finally have one of my novels translated into Ukrainian and published in Ukraine. The translator is the brilliant Yulia Lyubka and the publisher is Books XXI. Stolen Child (Stolen Girl) holds a special place in my heart because it was written at the urging of my late mother-in-law, Lidia Skrypuch, who was a kid during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine and half of her classmates were victims of the Lebensborn program. That this translation is coming out now is sadly appropriate because the new Nazis, aka Putin’s Z army, are doing Lebensborn all over again: kidnapping Ukrainian kids, brainwashing them and placing them in Russian homes. My mother-in-law used to say that there was little difference between the Nazis and the Moskali: both were genocidal killers and thieves, but the Nazis had better boots.
This is a photo of my mother in law as a baby, before anyone in their family had an inkling of what the future would hold.
Books XXI in Chernivtsi, Ukraine is publishing this beautiful edition of Stolen Child (Stolen Girl). Titled The Kidnapped Girl for this edition, the translation was done by the talented Yuliya Lyubka. More information can be found here. In Canada it will be available from Koota Ooma and other Ukrainian bookstores.
My final in-person visit of the school year was with Ms Weverink’s grade 10 English students on May 25th. The class had read Hope’s War together, but they also had Making Bombs for Hitler on their literature list so it was really neat to talk about both of these books because one was the seed for the other. In fact, Hope’s War was the seed for my two WWII trilogies. The students asked a lot of nuanced questions about character development and research and what compels me to write a story about a particular time in history. That led to a discussion about writing on topics that are suppressed and why it’s so important to advocate for people who have been silenced. I pointed out that every single one of them had been bullied at some point and so they should use that experience to put themselves in the shoes of others and advocate accordingly. Some of the students had the refugee experience in their own families so this was a resonant discussion.
It was wonderful to do my first in-person US school visit since spring 2020 on May 19th with Maryvale Middle School in Cheektowaga NY. It was a busy day with three assemblies, two “donuts and discussion” roundtables with selected students plus a whole whack of book signings. There was a Scholastic Book Fair being held in the middle school library while I spoke in the high school auditorium, so students bought a LOT of books. Ms. Cortese was concerned that there wouldn’t be enough time for me to autograph them all but I assured her that I’d stay as long as necessary. I love face-to-face autographs. It’s such a neat opportunity to meet students. I thought it was also interesting that students with the same first name came in clusters to have their books signed. How nifty is that?
Maryvale has students from Ukraine, so it was also good to speak with them about the current war.
My hometown of Brantford and the Buffalo area are connected in an unusual way. The first 50 Ukrainian families came to Brantford not from Ukraine, but from Buffalo. They were employed by the Pratt & Letchworth foundry in Buffalo and when they opened up another foundry in Brantford, 50 of their employees from Ukraine settled here to work at the new plant. And the street many of them lived on in Brantford? Why Buffalo Street of course. Want to read more? Here’s an article I wrote about it way back in 1988!
The Cheektowaga Bee’s Elijah Robinson did a lovely interview and has given me permission to post it here.
