Ukrainian – Page 2 – Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Teaching Genocide in ELA classrooms, with Russia’s current war on Ukraine as the focus.

After writing the Kidnapped from Ukraine trilogy over a frenzied 17 months, I tried to take a break from writing in 2025. I did manage to not write fiction, but ended up writing book contributions and other non-fiction things, including chapter four, “Crafting Historical Fiction: Rehumanizing Global Crises Through Character Development” in Sarah J. Donovan’s upcoming book, Teaching Genocide and Holocaust Education in ELA Classrooms: Language to Remember, Witness, and Repair.

I selected Russia’s current war on Ukraine as my genocide focus, and the rehumanizing of the victim exercise uses a scene from Standoff as a launching point.

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:

Under Attack is a Bank Street Best Book

Nice lists for Standoff

Thank you, Barbra Hesson of the Calgary Herald for including Standoff in your June picks! Thank you also, to the Canadian Children’s Book Center for selecting Standoff in the Best Books selection for spring 2026.

Riverside Books and Still Alive

Thank you to Alison and Nicole for hosting a wonderful Sunday afternoon book talk for Still Alive. The questions and discussions were so lively! I forgot to get pics during, but here’s Alison and myself outside of Riverside Bookshelf.

London: Still Alive launch and Vyshyvanka Day

It was a wonderful event last night in London Ontario. Many thanks to the volunteers and organizers from London UCC and the London Ukrainian Centre. It was great to see the students and educators from Woodstock’s St. Sophia Ukrainian school as well!

Still Alive book event at Koota Ooma!

This is my favourite photo of the night: a young reader excited to meet the person who wrote a book that he loves! I had meaningful conversations with so many people. It was a deeply emotional night.

Such an honour to be introduced by Lidiia Karpenko, a wonderful writer.

Mirka and I have a tradition of wearing matching jackets!

Svitlana and Maple Hope Fdn

Paulette had been telling me for months that I needed to meet her friend Svitlana Kominko, the founder of the Maple Hope Foundation, an organization that emerged in 2014 when the founders met during solidarity marches in Vancouver for the Euromaidan Revolution. We met for dinner on Friday night and talked for hours. I have such deep respect for Svitlana and all that she and her team have been able to accomplish to assist Ukrainian mothers who have lost their children during war. Do check out her website and donate if you can. I wish we had got a photo of us together! Here’s a pic of Svitlana, scooped from her facebook page. What an emotional way to end an amazing week. I flew home the next morning.

Friday: Signing at Book Warehouse on Main

After my last school session and on my way to returning the rental car, I stopped in at Book Warehouse on Main to autograph their stock copies of my books. The traffic was heavy and where I parked wasn’t exactly great, but the books are signed! LOVE independent bookstores. They are an author’s best friend, and readers’ best friend!

Friday afternoon: my last bookweek visit at Sherwood Park

My final school visit for Book Week was on Friday afternoon at École Sherwood Park ES. Students had so many interesting questions and observations about writing, world history, the war in Ukraine, and dyslexia. Often, by Friday afternoon, students are tired, but these young readers were animated and interested. Thanks so much, Patricia Laursen, teacher-librarian!