Still Alive (Kidnapped From Ukraine, Book 3)

Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Scholastic Press

978-1-5461-0457-5

320 pp.

Ages 8–12

April 2026 

 

 

While the war on Ukraine by Russia continues to this day, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is ready to resolve the story of twins Dariia and Rada Popkova. The story that began with Dariia's perspective on the attack and invasion of Ukraine in Under Attack (2025) after the girls' separation, and that led to Rada's story in Standoff (2025) comes full circle with a story that brings families together. They are still alive and fighting for themselves, each other, and their country.

 

Still Alive begins in November of 2022 with Rada and her mom living in a ski village in the Carpathian Mountains. Mom works as a manicurist at the Hotel Karpaty, and they are preparing to move into their prefab home in a new refugee area in nearby Prytulok. They receive unexpected messages from Dariia, who has been "adopted" by a Russian family in a Moscow suburb, with details about her "new" name and birthday, as well as those of other Ukrainian children who had been kidnapped to Russia. So begins their fight to get Dariia and the other children back to Ukraine.

 

With the help of Save Ukraine, a Ukrainian charitable organization whose initiatives includes rescue and reunification of children taken from Ukraine, Mom and Rada and their new family of friends get to work trying to find families of others so that they might rescue as many as possible. But it's an arduous task as all must be done legally, finding legal guardians, obtaining powers of attorney, and more.

 

The second part of the story comes after Dariia is rescued and comes to live with Mom and Rada. She may be back with much of her own family—the whereabouts of her soldier father are still unknown—but she must navigate a new reality. She and Rada may be twins but they have always been different. With the traumas that they have endured, it's not just being together like it had been. Here's healing that has to happen but still with the mission to help their country. In fact, they do even more. They find a way to...

...take a shattered world and make it into something beautiful. (pg. 273) 

A series titled Kidnapped From Ukraine does not intimate a story of joy.  Of course, a story based in the ongoing war on Ukraine could be nothing less than horrific. While Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is an author who tells real stories, she is also one who handles them with sensitivity, aware that there is a way to tell an impactful story and still offer reassurance. With Still Alive, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch remind us that this war is not over, and that people are still suffering. Rada's question about the senselessness of this war—"How much hate does it take to kill your neighbour with missiles aimed at churches, children, hospitals?" (pg. 43)—resonates throughout the book as Ukrainians consider atrocities, new or repeated. Their reactions are as diverse as their experiences but their resolve to do what they can—build drones, sew camouflage nets, feed abandoned animals—to save Ukraine is unmistakable. 

 

The Kidnapped From Ukraine trilogy may be disheartening in the nature of its story, but Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch heartens it by comforting young readers with a narrative of families, made and found, and hope for a new future.

 

Under Attack (2025)

Standoff (2025)

Still Alive (2026)

Standoff (Kidnapped From Ukraine, #2)

Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Scholastic
978-1-5461-0454-4
288 pp.
Ages 8–13
October 2025

 

As it had been for me reading Under Attack, the first book in Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch's Kidnapped From Ukraine series, delving into Standoff was a challenge. I knew to expect a sensitive but authentic story about the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but I also knew that it would be emotionally demanding of me because of my heritage. It was. But it was also eloquent and inspiring and well worth the read.

 

In the earlier Under Attack, readers are introduced to the Popkov family: dad Ivan who worked at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, mom Yaroslava who worked at a nail salon, and twelve-year-old twin sisters Dariia and Rada. When the first attack occurs in February of 2022, Dariia and her mom are separated from Rada and their dad. The first book covers Dariia's perspective and experiences, while Standoff is told from Rada's point of view from the onset of the first attack. While Dariia and their mom find shelter at a salon and other commercial buildings, Rada and her dad head to the steel plant with its extensive bunkers, and from which he will join up with the Territorial Defense . With the wise words, "Be brave but not stupid" (pg. 42), her dad leaves Rada in the care of the Yanin family: Mr. Yanin, an engineer; his son Viktor, a classmate of Rada's; and his nine-year-old daughter Alina. (Mrs. Yanin was killed in the attack on their apartment building.)

 

Each day is a scramble for food, clothing, water, heat and more. Still, the make-shift family connects with another family when Rada meets Lesia Stepanova. Lesia is sheltering in another bunker at the plant with both her grandmothers (Baba and Babushka), her sister-in-law Maiia, and Lesia's baby nephew Oleh. Lesia's mother is also in the Territorial Defense, while Lesia's older brother is in Moscow on a business trip. After they attempt to evacuate Mariupol during a ceasefire—which the Russians failed to observe—they add nine-year-old Mychailo Voron and a woman named Svetlana Boyko to their little group.

 

Their lives become a series of routines to help them get through each day, whether it is doing lessons, or toileting, or preparing and sharing their meager provisions. Hope comes with the promise of a ceasefire—more than once—though the Russians are quick to apprehend and attempt to transport Ukrainians to Russia. It's only when the Red Cross, the UN, and other international observers and aid are involved that those efforts are stymied.

 

Life is tenuous. On the inside of the plant, Rada and her new family struggle and worry and grieve. Outside, their challenges are both the same and different: worried for their loved ones, grappling with a lack of resources, terrified of being injured or killed, and never knowing whom they could trust. 

 

The attack and war on Ukraine has sadly been part of the news cycle for almost four years, but for many it is a story from "over there." Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch's stories, both Under Attack and Standoff, take a distant conflict and make it personal. This isn't happening faraway to people we don't know. It's happening to children, to the elderly, to parents, and to shopkeepers, neighbours, and people we care about. We feel their horror, recognize their anxieties, grasp their grief, and acknowledge their needs to hold on to whatever might offer comfort, whether a cat or a Motanka doll. Whether it's a middle grader reading this book and stunned by the horrific circumstances that Rada and her families, born and made, endure, or an older reader who understands the cruelty of others and the grief of loss, Standoff will hit hard. But Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch knows how to tell a story of immense tragedy by pairing it with resilience, affection, and hope. Even the title of the third book in the series, which releases in April, tells us that there is more to the twins' stories and, even with more hardships and loss, they endure. 

 

For an authentic and very personal perspective on the war in Ukraine, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch offers a story of Ukrainians from Mariupol and what they saw and felt when the Russians attacked. She even offers more background in her "Author's Note" and the Q & A with which she appends Standoff, helping young people gain greater understanding about the events and the history behind the Russian invasion. We can only hope that with awareness comes understanding, and with time there will be a favourable resolution for the people of Ukraine.  

 

 • • • • • • •

 

Under Attack (January, 2025)

Standoff (October, 2025)

Still Alive (April, 2026)
 

Under Attack (Kidnapped From Ukraine, #1)

 

Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

 Scholastic

978-1-546104513

320 pp.

Ages 8-13

January 2025

 

Apologies to author Marsha Skrypuch and Scholastic for my tardy review of this exceptional novel. They kindly ensured I received a copy of Under Attack and, while a gripping read, it has an emotional component for me, making my reading of it far more challenging. But, because it is so well written and told with such compassion and insight, I could not stay away from Under Attack. Years from now, readers will look to Under Attack as an authentic commentary of how the attack on Ukraine that started in 2022 played out for children and their families. 

 

Twelve-year-old Dariia Popkova's story did not just start on February 24, 2022, although this is the starting point of Under Attack. Her life in her family's fourth floor apartment in Mariupol would have been typical. Her father worked at the Azovstal steel plant. Her mother worked at a nail salon. And Dariia and her twin sister Rada went to school, had friends, did crafts, and loved using their cell phones. Then Putin declares a "special military operation" to free Ukrainians from their "Nazi" regime. When the first bomb hits their apartment, Dariia and her mother are separated from Dariia's dad and Rada. With this begins a separation of place and experience as they try to find their way back together.

 

Dariia and her mother shelter in a basement of a school supply depot with many others. Some are strangers like Sonya Marynovska and her four-year-old daughter Ariadna and two Tatar boys Rustem and Asan, but also a classmate Natalia and her dog Mimi. From their basement base, the twenty-eight hunker down, make unsafe outings to scavenge for food and water and get cell phone reception. They are "eating practically nothing, drinking bad water, and hearing the thunder of nonstop bombing overhead." (p. 53) Weeks turn into months and though Dariia and her mom are first looking to get to the Avostal steel plant where her father's army reserve is stationed and Rada is safe, ultimately they get the message to get to the humanitarian corridor and go to Zaporizhzhia, a city in southeast Ukraine. 

This wasn't a war.
This was the Russian Federation executing civilians because they were Ukrainians.
It was terrifying and senseless. (p. 82) 

Stealing an abandoned car, amidst the continued shelling, roaming tanks with white Z markings, and marauding Russian soldiers, Dariia, her mother, Rustem, Ariadna and Mimi the dog don't get very far before they are stopped and sent to a "filtration center" where they are told they would be evacuated to safer parts of Russia. 

 

Dariia, now separated from her mother, is sent with Rustem and other children–Katya, Volodya, Ihor, Dmytro and siblings Lilia and Vadim–to the Romashka Children's Camp where they are told about Putin, the benevolent president, who has helped rescue them from the Nazi regime of Zelensky. The children know it is propaganda but play along.

It made me angry that the Russians had brought me to this prison that looked and smelled like freedom. (p. 136)

When they are sent to their respective Russian "foster homes," the children vow to get in touch whenever they can with a Gmail account Liliya and Vadim had created to drop messages. Separated from any family they might have and each other, they are determined to keep their connections to each other, to the truth and their homeland.

This could be historical fiction. It could have been a story from the 1940s. I wish that it were. But it's a contemporary story from 2022 through the present, recounting the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the continuing war in a fictionalized story. Someday Under Attack will be historical fiction and readers will shake their heads at the senselessness of the war. I can only hope that they'll be looking back from a time when Ukraine is free from Russian oppression and violence.

While a fictionalized story, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch takes the time and effort to understand the truths, like the truth about how the war started, the propaganda levelled at both Ukrainians and Russians, and the impact of the war on Ukrainians, from children to workers to the elderly. It is a tough story because of these truths which are so distressing and disheartening. Still Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is a master at telling such stories (e.g., Winterkill, Traitors Among Us, Dance of the Banished, and Making Bombs for Hitler), ensuring a sensitivity to her characters and her readers, and a thoroughness and accuracy of details.

It's fitting that I review Under Attack on a day which Christians commemorate as Good Friday. Like the day, this book is one of grief and injustice. And it is one that requires contemplation. We can only hope that after the grief comes a resurrection for Ukraine and a future of peace. Only history, and Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch's follow-up books in the Kidnapped From Ukraine series, will tell.

• • • • • • •

Standoff, Book 2 in Kidnapped from Ukraine, releases in October, 2025.

 

 

Winterkill

Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Scholastic

978-1-338-831-41-2

288 pp.

Ages 8-13

September 2022

 

Our way of life was being erased. We had to figure out a way to escape before we were erased too. (pg. 38)

With a war currently raging in Ukraine, it's easy to remember that Ukraine has suffered oppression for centuries. As it sought independence and freedom, the country was repeatedly targeted and made to suffer. Winterkill is but one story of an attempt to quash a people with a strong cultural identity and fervor for autonomy. 

In 1930, 12-year-old Nyl Chorny lives on a small farm with his parents and younger siblings Yulia (11) and Slavko (9) in the village of Felivka near Kharkiv. Ukraine is currently under the control of the Soviet Communists led by Stalin whose five-year-plan to modernise the country is really aimed at hurting Ukrainians by eliminating small family farms and combining them under large collectives called kolkhozes. Some villagers are buying into the lies told by Comrades Tupolev and Chort–Russians charged with governing them–and shock workers promising tractors, increased grain, and better opportunities. But for those like Tato, Nyl's father, the collectivisation is just a replacement for landlords and will have nothing to do with them. Still, they must abide by the demands of Communist workers who inventory all their goods, ban religious faith, and requisition their grain with the threat of being labelled kulaks and executed or deported. Some Communists are foreign specialists like Canadian George White who will be working at the future tractor factory and truly believes in Communism as does his young daughter Alice. Others have just found a new way to bully and exert control and gain wealth at the expense of others.

 

If you want to eat, join the kolkhoz. (pg. 50)

 

Still the family farms as best they can, managing with less after Nyl's Uncle Illya is executed for being a kulak, and Auntie Pawlina and baby cousin Tanya move in with the family. A bumper crop of wheat, millet and corn in the summer of 1930 has them all hopeful again and the family considers leaving the Soviet Union via Auntie's cousins in Ternopil, a city across the border in Polish Ukraine. But all those dreams go up in smoke when soldiers steal all the grain while the families celebrate the harvest.

Relying on foraging, hunting and fishing for food, and no way to get money needed for travel, Nyl and Slavko steal away to work in Kharkiv where the tractor plant needs construction workers. But what they find there is as dismal as at home though they are able to make some money. Still, what they return home to is worse than they could have expected. Whether any of them will ever survive, much less escape, a genocide by starvation and violence is Nyl's story to tell.

Winterkill is a big story. It is so big that I can't possibly reveal all the details and nuances of Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch's story in a short review. There are good people and evil ones, both Ukrainian and Russian. There is joy and heartache, resourcefulness and laziness, greed and generosity. And there is oppression. Though much of Winterkill deals with the Holodomor, the 1932-1933 genocide of Ukrainians by starvation, it's a story that's bigger than that. It's about that oppression of people and culture. There is resilience, as Nyl demonstrates with his story, but there is death and destruction and horrific suffering. And Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch tells it with such authenticity that this book of historical fiction could be a biography. Still, she tells it with sensitivity and compassion and allowed this  Ukrainian-Canadian to read it with appreciation, albeit filled with sorrow.

🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻 

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch will launch Winterkill at the Brantford Public Library’s downtown branch on Thursday, November 24, 2022, at 6 p.m. Copies of the book will be available for purchase from Green Heron Books for signing by the author.  

Traitors Among Us

Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Scholastic

978-1-338-75429-2

288 pp.

Ages 8-13

September 2021

 

Do what you can, Maria, instead of worrying about what you can't. (pg. 21)

Everyone has their story. But is it the one they lived or just a story? Among the refugees from the Nazis, there are both kinds of stories, and sisters Krystia and Maria Fediuk from Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch's earlier books, Don't Tell the Nazis and Trapped in Hitler's Web, can only be sure of what they've lived through and what they are willing to share.

It's June 1945 and the two Ukrainian sisters have made their way, separately and then together, from their town of Viteretz through Austria and now into the Karlsfeld camp in the American Zone in Germany, hopeful that this stop will help get them to their aunt and uncle in Toronto. But the Soviets, under the guise of repatriating refugees from Eastern Europe but really to punish them as traitors and silence them, take Krystia and Maria and several others into the Soviet Zone for interrogation before choosing how to deal with them.

With fellow prisoners Sophie, a former Hitler Girl, and Volksdeutsche father and son Elias and Finn, they are locked away, fearful that their roles in helping both the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and Jews escape will have them sent to Siberia or worse. Drawing strength from their memories of their father and their mother, the girls make sure that they tell only one story, regardless of threat of death or worries for the other. But will it be enough to keep them alive? And who can they trust? When anyone can be a traitor, whether lowly prisoner, local cook or NKVD officer, the girls know only that they can rely on each other. They may only be 14 and 16 years of age, but Maria and Krystia have a lifetime of strength and suffering to help them survive.

Don't Tell the Nazis (2018)

Trapped in Hitler's Web (2020)

Traitors Among Us (2021)

If you've read the first two books in Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch's trilogy about the Fediuk sisters, and I encourage all readers to immerse themselves in these earlier stories, you'll know the depth of heartache and hardship that Krystia and Maria and others have endured at the hands of the Nazis and the Soviets. Their experiences are not foreign to most in western Ukraine who were wedged between two dangerous oppressors and hoped that immigration to other countries might help them survive. Old enemies or new enemies are still enemies. From the girls' terror of Soviet and Nazi occupation in Ukraine, their enslavement by the Nazis and finally their seeking refuge with the Allies before imprisonment as traitors to the Soviets, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch informs young readers about stories seldom told of World War II. War is not just for soldiers and sometimes the civilians living through it are young people and their stories are compelling and tragic. But Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, a master storyteller of historical fiction as well as of picture books, non-fiction and realistic middle-grade and YA, takes us to those war-torn countries to travel with the girls as they walk dusty roads with thousands of refugees, toil on farms, hide from dangerous people, and find and offer support, even as they endure hunger, cold, fear and uncertainty. Every atmospheric scene is one of edge-of-your-seat nerves, worry that the next ally they make may not be one, shock at executions witnessed, and solace from a sisterly bond and fleeting memories of home.

 

There have always been traitors among them, but Krystia and Maria are able to find the hope and strength to achieve an ending to their story that satisfies, courtesy of Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, and young readers will appreciate that ending, acknowledge the stories that took them there and learn the history that started them on those journeys.

 

• • • • • • •

 

Author Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch will launch her new book virtually through the Brantford Public Library on December 1st. Register at calendar.brantfordlibrary.ca for an opportunity to hear this acclaimed author speak and read from Traitors Among Us.

 

Trapped in Hitler's Web

Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Scholastic

978-1-338-67258-9

240 pp.

Ages 8-12

October 2020

 

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch first addressed the impact of World War II on Ukraine and its people by the Soviets and then the Nazis in her series which included Stolen Child, Making Bombs for Hitler and Underground Soldier. With Don't Tell the Enemy (alternate title Don't Tell the Nazis), she began a different story, one of protecting Jewish friends in the Ukrainian village of Viteretz after the Nazis began to show their true colours. In Trapped in Hitler's Web, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch takes us beyond Viteretz, following Maria and Nathan after they've run away in the effort to keep Nathan's Jewish identity hidden and survive.

When the occupying Nazis started killing Jews in their village, eleven-year-old Maria Fediuk leaves her mother and older sister Krystia, whose story is told in Don't Tell the Enemy, to save her friend Nathan Segal from imminent death. Using the identity papers of a boy killed by the Soviets, Nathan becomes Bohdan Sawchuk, and the two sign up for work in the Reich, believing the promises of pay, food and shelter. Heading to Austria with others who'd been captured as slave labourers, their hope for safety is shattered when the two are separated in Salzburg, Nathan taken for bridge building while Maria is sent to the Huber farm near Innsbruck. 

The Huber farm is currently run by Frau Huber and her parents, Frau and Herr Lang. Frau Huber's husband and son are both fighting for the Reich and her fourteen-year-old daughter Sophie is a staunch Hitler Girl. Soon enough Maria learns that she and Bianka, a Polish girl captured two years earlier, are little more than slave labourers, sleeping in the barn and allotted minimal food, though not as badly off as the Ukrainians labelled as Ostarbeiters who return to a slave camp nightly. Though Frau Huber and her parents show kindness when they can, they are very cautious as their harvest is monitored, their actions are regularly scrutinized by Blockleiter Doris Schutt and they fear that the inexorable Sophie might betray them.

Realizing that her plan to help Nathan escape and to send money home to her mother and sister has failed, Maria does what she must to survive, knowing that she may be better off than some, but that she must find a way to make things right for Nathan and her family. Coming to realize that there are many trapped in Hitler's organization of cruelty and propaganda, from the Jewish people, to slave labourers, farmers, and even soldiers, Marie watches and listens and learns what she must to persevere and help those she cares about do the same.

As historical fiction, Trapped in Hitler's Web, like its companion novel Don't Tell the Enemy, is tragically honest and heartbreaking. The story is even more anguished as it is inspired by real events and people. But it is a telling story, from the perspective of a brave child who endured excruciating physical and emotional hardship, driven by hope to help those dear to her. It's also revelatory about the many victims of the Reich, borne in a manufactured hierarchy of discrimination. Hearing Maria and others referred to as "subhumans" and starved and abused is crushing. Still Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch writes to reveal another story of WWII, specifically about Ukrainians, and she does so with much heart and compassion, reminding us that there are sometimes more than two sides to a story and to war itself.

 

• • • • • • • 

Don't forget the virtual book launch coming up for Trapped in Hitler's Web.  Teachers and their classes are encouraged to attend for an opportunity to listen to Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch speak about her newest book of historical fiction. Register for this free event at the Brantford Public Library.

Trapped in Hitler's Web: Book launch (Online)

Join award-winning writer  

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

for the virtual book launch of

 

the companion book to

 Don't Tell the Enemy (Don't Tell the Nazis)

Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Scholastic Canada
978-1-4431-2839-1
184 pp.

Ages 10-14

2018

Reviewed here

Trapped in Hitler's Web

Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Scholastic
978-1-338-67258-9
240 pp.
Ages 8-12
October 2020

Review to follow

 

 on

 

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

at

1-2 p.m. EST

 

Presented through the Brantford Public Library, 

register for this free event 

at the library's calendar of events here 

 
Everyone is welcome. Teachers are especially encouraged to sign up their classes to hear Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch speak about her newest book of historical fiction and engage in a discussion about the book.

Sky of Bombs, Sky of Stars: A Vietnamese War Ophan Finds Home

Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-094-9

224 pp.

Ages 8-12

April 2020

For young readers who have not had the privilege of reading Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch's award-winning non-fiction books about Son Thi Anh Tuyet, a child rescued from Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War and who finds a new life in Canada, Sky of Bombs, Sky of Stars offers an omnibus of the two earlier stories.  

In her first book, Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan's Rescue from War (2011), Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch tells the story of Tuyet, an eight-year orphan in today's Ho Chi Minh City who knows only bombs, soldiers, caring for babies at the orphanage and two visits from a woman and a boy. Convinced she would never be adopted because of a damaged foot and because she did not understand English, she never sees the opportunity presented to her when she is taken with numerous babies onto a plane to head away from the danger and to a new life with the Morris family in Brantford, Ontario.

In the sequel, One Step at a Time: A Vietnamese Child Finds Her Way (2012), Tuyet has become a part of a family with a mom and dad, two sisters and a little brother. She no longer believes she has only been welcomed to tend to the children and, though she is still haunted by nightmares, she has learned to play and be a child again. But she has new fears when she learns that she will be undergoing surgery to resolve her foot and ankle impaired by polio. With her minimal English and her family unable to speak Vietnamese, Tuyet's world continues to be a challenge. Still, with the love and patience of her new family and other special people, she forges ahead, taking new steps forward.

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch consistently tells stories about young people challenged during historical times and how they rise above the adversity to make lives for themselves. Tuyet's is such a story. She was a little girl alone, feeling her life limited to work and caring for others, never expecting much for herself. But with an airlift out of Saigon and the love of a compassionate family, Tuyet builds something new and begins to see herself as the incredible person she has always been, beyond what service she provides. Fortunately, by putting both Tuyet's stories together in an omnibus, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch and Pajama Press will help young readers get the whole story, saving them from a search for sequels or determining which book came first.  Sky of Bombs, Sky of Stars truly gives young readers the more complete story of a Vietnamese war orphan's journey from hardships and horror to hope and home.

••••••••••••••••
The two original books

Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan's Rescue from War (2011)
One Step at a Time: A Vietnamese Child Finds Her Way (2012)
were reviewed on CanLit for LittleCanadians originally
on April 9, 2012 and September 9, 2012 respectively.

Too Young to Escape: Book launch (Brantford, ON)

Join

author of children's picture books, middle-grade and YA novels and non-fiction

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

and 

Van Ho

her co-author and subject of this 

new middle-grade non-fiction book

for the launch of

Too Young to Escape: A Vietnamese Girl Waits to be Reunited with Her Family

Written by Van Ho with Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Pajama Press
978-1-77278-066-6
152 pp.
Ages 8-12
November 2018

on 

Saturday, December 1, 2018

2:30 - 4:00 p.m.

at

Brantford Public Library

173 Colborne Street

Brantford, ON

 

Read my review posted October 3, 2018 

here on CanLit for LittleCanadians

Too Young to Escape: A Vietnamese Girl Waits to be Reunited with her Family

Written by Van Ho with Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-066-6

152 pp.

Ages 8-12

November 2018

When Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch co-wrote Adrift at Sea: A Vietnamese Boy's Story of Survival with Tuan Ho, she began a family's story of escape from Vietnam in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and taking of power by the communists. In that picture book, illustrated by Brian Deines, a mother and her two daughters, Loan and Lan, and six-year-old son Tuan escape Vietnam by boat, hopeful of joining father and the eldest daughter Linh in Canada. But there was another story. Because four-year-old Van is left behind.  Too Young to Escape is her story.

In May of 1981, four-year-old Van awakens at 5 a.m. in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to find her mother, older sisters Loan and Lan, and her six-year-old brother Tuan gone. Though it is unusual for Tuan to go with the women to do their early morning work, Van is distracted by her own chores. As guests of their aunt and uncle, Dì and Bác, since her own family lost everything when the communists took over, Van's pre-school work includes cleaning the house and spinning yarn for a weaver to later make the rice sacks Dì and Bác sold. But when her siblings don't show up to school, Van learns from her grandmother, Bà Ngoại, that her mother and siblings are gone. Van is devastated, wondering why she wasn't good enough to go with them, but Bà Ngoại reassures her that they've gone on a dangerous journey and Van's respiratory issues–she has difficulty breathing and often has to clear phlegm from her lungs–would have made it even more hazardous for her and the family.

Sometimes there are no perfect solutions. (pg. 31)

So begins a difficult chapter in little Van's life, slaving away at her aunt and uncle's home, tormented by a policeman's son at school, and feeling the loss of her family, particularly her mother who, she'd thought, should have been there to protect her. Still her Bà Ngoại, though seemingly insensitive to Van's struggles, tries to help Van understand.

Be thankful for what you do have, little one, instead of fretting about what you don't have. (pg. 64)

And Van learns to become "an expert at hiding my sadness" (pg. 67). Finally, they get a heartfelt letter and package from Saskatoon where her parents and four siblings have reunited. Along with some gifts, including clothes that growing Van desperately needs, Van learns that that her parents have submitted applications to bring Van and Bà Ngoại to join them.

It takes over four years before Van and her grandmother are reunited with her family in Canada, a family that "was like a storybook family" (pg. 87), and, though her life in Vietnam is difficult, it is a life with which she is familiar and leaving it is difficult.

Van Ho, who lived this story, tells it through Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch's pen of extraordinary writing which reflects both Van's youthful point of view and her trauma. Her story is a disquieting but it's also uplifting, focusing on Van's resilience.  Told from her perspective, from Van explaining away her family's absence before she learns the reason to her obligation to completing chores many of our culture might deem inappropriate for one so young to finding a friend in a girl less fortunate than herself, Van's story of being left behind is heartbreaking.

Enhancing Van Ho's story with photographs and interviews with her father, Nam Ho, and mother, Phuoc Ho, Too Young to Escape gives a snapshot of a different time and place, one of upheaval and loss, perseverance and endurance, that ends with a reunion and a good life in Canada. It is a story of survival, even if Van Ho was Too Young to Escape.

Don't Tell the Enemy

Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-2839-1

184 pp.

Ages 10-14

January 2018

The Soviets have oppressed the Ukrainian homeland of twelve-year-old Krystia Fediuk for centuries but their occupation since 1939 has been a reign of terror for the Ukrainians, Poles and Jews in the town of Viteretz with appropriation of homes, imposed hunger, deportation to slave camps and execution.  With the Germans marching into Ukraine in 1941 and the Soviets fleeing, there are initial hopes and even proclamations of Ukrainian independence.  But the good spirits that come with the egress of their oppressors and the bestowing of food, as well as the opening of the church, are soon suspended as the Nazis begin to show their true objectives.

Krystia, her younger sister Maria and their mother Kateryna live amongst a diverse neighbourhood of Jewish, Ukrainian and Polish families of both modest and wealthier means and a Catholic church with resident priest, surrounded by farms.  Some residents are already gone, whether deported to Siberian slave camps, executed by trigger-happy Soviets or in hiding from the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, like Krystia's Uncle Ivan.  Regardless of atrocities, life must go on, and that includes taking their cow Krasa to pasture daily, tending to the garden, feeding the chickens and fetching water, always keeping their heads down to avoid suffering the wrath of the Soviets.  But when the Germans roll in, their community begins to change in different ways.  In addition to the Nazis, refugees from Germany as well as Volksdeutsche–ethnic Germans from Slav countries–begin to flood the area and force the displacement of residents.  Then the summons from Commandant Hermann begin, first naming a hundred Jewish men and declaring them to be murderers of those imprisoned by Soviets. The community is stunned when the men are shot and amassed in a single grave. 

The terror of the Nazis escalates with their acceptance of Aryan, German and Volksdeutsche as The Master Race and all others as subhuman, with particular targetting of the Jewish people, both in mass executions and then segregation into a Jewish Ghetto.  After her Auntie Iryna goes to live with the insurgents in their forest encampment, Krystia takes on the role of courier of photos and falsified documentation.  With food rationed to starvation levels, fines imposed for random acts and their Jewish friends in danger of imminent death, Krystia and her mother take increasing risks to survive and help their friends and family. 

...that the way to honor our family and friends was to be strong and to live and to tell their stories. (pg. 177)

Based on the true story of Kateryna Sikorska and her daughter Krystia Korpan, Don't Tell the Enemy reveals the often overlooked position of Ukraine during World War II when the terrorism historically imposed by the Soviets escalated to horrors which many believed would be appeased by the Germans.  But invasion is invasion and oppression is still that.  The shift from the Soviets persecuting all in their community to the brutality levelled by the Nazis against the Jewish people and those who might help them is especially tragic.  A simple life of family and work now becomes an exercise in survival and even more perilous with the pitting of groups of people.  No one should have to choose.  While some appear to do so easily and heartlessly, there are others like Krystia and her family who demonstrate incredible courage and resilience in the face of death and fear.  Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch in her author's notes mentions that she almost wrote this as a piece of non-fiction but chose to tell it as a fictionalized account to do the story justice.  She chose well and admirably tells a story that needs to be read to appreciate the circumstances of those living in western Ukraine during World War II when enemies were plentiful, dangers ubiquitous, survival precarious and a few good people could make all the difference.

≥≤≥≤≥≤≥≤≥≤≥≤≥≤≥≤≥≤

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch launches Don't Tell the Enemy next week in Brantford Ontario.  The author is a passionate speaker and sure to captivate attendees with her reading and sharing of writing this new book.  Details about the launch are provided here.

Don't Tell the Enemy: Book launch (Brantford, ON)

Author

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

who has dazzled middle grade readers
with her historical fiction and non-fiction books
including picture books,

is back with her newest

Don't Tell the Enemy

Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-2839-1

184 pp.

Ages 10-14

January 2018

on

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

at 

7 p.m.

at

Braemar House School

36 Baxter Street

Brantford, ON
(Map here)

⥐⥐⥐⥐⥐

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch 
will speak about the real mother and daughter 
who risked their lives to hide three Jewish friends 
during the Holocaust.

This is their story (from the blurb on Scholastic Canada website:

How much would you do for a friend? Krystia’s family hides Jews from the Nazis at immense risk to their own lives.

Life is becoming dangerous for Krystia. It’s 1941 and her town in Ukraine is now occupied by the Soviets. Some members of her family are harassed, while others are arrested and killed. When the Nazis liberate the town, they are welcomed with open arms. But Krystia’s best friend Dolik has doubts. His family is Jewish and rumours are that the Nazis are even more brutal than the Soviets.

When the Nazis discover a mass grave of Soviet prisoners, they use it as an excuse and blame the slaughter on the Jews. Soon after, the Nazis establish ghettoes and begin public execution of Jews. Krystia can’t bear to see her friends suffer, so she smuggles food in for them. When word gets out that the ghetto will be cleared and Jews will be exterminated, Krystia must make an impossible decision. Will she risk her own family’s safety to save her friends?

Retrieved from http://www.scholastic.ca/rights/titles/special/dont-tell-the-enemy/ 

on December 14, 2017.

Book sales and signing will follow the author's presentation.

(Proceeds will go to the Scholarship Fund of CFUW Brantford)

Light refreshments will be served.

Adrift at Sea: A Vietnamese Boy's Story of Survival: Book launch (Brantford, ON)

Join 

award-winning author Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch 

and

  Tuan Ho

for the launch of their collaborative non-fiction picture book

Adrift at Sea

A Vietnamese Boy's Story of Survival

by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch with Tuan Ho

Illustrated by Brian Deines

Pajama Press

978-1-77279-005-5

40 pp.

Ages 6+

September 2016

Reviewed here

on

  Tuesday, December 6, 2016

7-8 p.m.

at

Station Coffee House and Gallery

(at the Train Station)

5 Wadsworth Street

Brantford, ON

N3T 3V5

The authors are generously donating proceeds from the book sales 

to the Brant Anglican Churches Support for Syrian Refugees.

Adrift at Sea: A Vietnamese Boy’s Story of Survival

Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch with Tuan Ho

Illustrated by Brian Deines

Pajama Press

978-1-77279-005-5

40 pp.

Ages 6+

September 2016

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch has a proclivity for telling stories of historical fiction that are rarely addressed in the literature:  the Armenian genocide; the airlifts from Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War; enslavement of Ukrainians during World War II; the oppression of Alevi Kurds; and the Ukrainian Holodomyr. Now she turns her literary attention to the Vietnamese “boat people” who were willing to risk everything to seek better lives far away from their new communist government.  Based on the story of Tuan Ho, a six-year-old boy whose family separated to make their way to Canada, and with Brian Deines’ formidable illustrations, Adrift at Sea: A Vietnamese Boy’s Story of Survival becomes a testimonial and an acknowledgement of those who demonstrate extraordinary courage in order to escape the horrors of their homelands.

At the onset of the story, Tuan’s father and older sister Linh have already escaped a year earlier (1980) by boat, hopeful of settling in Canada and sponsoring the family. Now Tuan’s mother tells him that they are leaving that night, though without his youngest sister Van whom Ma believes might not survive the journey and will instead remain behind with Tuan’s aunt and uncle.  In the middle of the night, Tuan, his mother, and sisters Loan and Lan, as well as another aunt and two cousins, make their way to the water, amidst gunfire and shouting soldiers.  Transported by motor boat, Tuan, Loan and their mother are reunited with Lan and the rest of his family on a larger fishing boat.

From Adrift at Sea: A Vietnamese Boy's Story of Survival 

by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch with Tuan Ho, illus. by Brian Deines

Though bullets no longer pepper the quiet of the sea, the challenges of a boat crowded with sixty people without shelter from a scorching sun and having only limited water are exacerbated when the boat starts taking on water on the second day, and the motor breaks down on the third day of their estimated four day journey.  They are now adrift and their fates unknown.   Witnessing another drifting boat setting itself on fire, hopeful that they are a rescue boat, makes Tuan wonder whether their  fate will be similar.

     The flames in the distance suddenly envelop that boat.  It overturns.  The flames and boat are swallowed by the sea.
     We sixty stare in silent horror, but there is nothing that we can do to help.
     Will this be our fate as well? (pg. 28)

Not until the sixth day are they spotted by a massive American aircraft carrier and taken aboard, whereupon Tuan gets to partake in the glass of milk of which he has dreamed for days.  For Tuan, this would seem to be a happy ending, though the task of reuniting the whole family–father and sister Linh, with Tuan, his mother and sisters Loan and Lan, and finally little sister Van–is still to come, as Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch shares in an addendum, with family photographs.  Even beyond Tuan’s tale which is encompassed in the mere 34 illustrated pages, there is the story of the Vietnamese “boat people” and the circumstances by which they were forced to flee their country explained in Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch’s historical notes.

Adrift at Sea: A Vietnamese Boy’s Story of Survival is a big story to tell.  It’s broad in historical scope, and emotionally hefty in the distress and fear experienced by Tuan and his fellow refugees, and in its moral significance.  I’m afraid not all stories of Vietnamese refugees ended as favourably as for Tuan’s family but I am ever thankful that Tuan Ho’s story does have a happy ending and that Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch chose to share it with young readers in an illustrated book and that Pajama Press chose well to pair it with the art of Brian Deines. From the illustration of a lone boat adrift in a wash of dry heat that graces the cover of Adrift at Sea, to the dark and engrossing images of Tuan’s steps along the journey, Brian Deines’ art is evocative and integrative, resplendent in complementary colours of orange and golds and blues and purples.

From Adrift at Sea: A Vietnamese Boy's Story of Survival 

by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch with Tuan Ho, illus. by Brian Deines

By recounting Tuan’s story in the limited but succinct text of a picture book, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is able to forge a powerful connection between the emotions of the narrative and the visual i.e., the expansive oil painted art of Brian Deines. This makes Adrift at Sea: A Vietnamese Boy’s Story of Survival more than just a story about Tuan Ho.  It makes it an archive of historical importance for young readers to access.

Authors' Booking Service: Helping readers connect with youngCanLit authors and illustrators

Schools, libraries, book festivals and other literary functions that endeavour to enlist Canadian authors and illustrators are fortunate to have the Authors' Booking Service to help connect readers with those who produce our rich collection of youngCanLit. For those who have ever been interested in booking an author or illustrator, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch and Valerie Sherrard, youngCanLit authors in their own right (write?), created this service in 2006, and share details about it here.

HK:  What is the Authors' Booking Service?

ABS:  Since 2006, Authors' Booking Service has been assisting educators and librarians with finding young adult and children's book creators who are qualified and willing to present at schools and libraries.

We currently represent more than 100 high-profile Canadian children’s authors and illustrators who produce fiction and non-fiction in all genres of work and for all ages. Our creators range from budding writers to multiple award winners. We represent six of the original Seven series authors, a poet-songwriter, an astronomer who brings his own planetarium to visits, an artist who donates an original sketch to schools she gives workshops for, and a singer-songwriter who can workshop how to craft your own school anthem. Our creators entertain, inspire, educate and, most of all, promote literacy and creativity, each in their own unique way.

In recent years, we have partnered with the OLA Forest of Reading program to help current nominees with their bookings. This is particularly important for out of province nominees, because without a critical mass of bookings, many could not afford the trip to their own award ceremonies.

We represent seasoned creators and brand new authors. The one thing that all of our creators have in common is that they love doing school and library presentations and they're good at it!

An impressive group of youngCanLit authors, including Janet Wilson, Rona Arato, Loris Lesynski and Marsha Skrypuch (just to name a few) met with teacher-librarians in Dufferin-Peel.

HK:  Why did you start this service?

ABS:  We saw the need for a booking service that would provide educators and librarians with up-to-date information on children's and young adult authors who were willing and qualified to do school and library presentations and writing workshops. From a creator’s point of view, there was a huge need for a service that could connect with educators and librarians in a systematic way to manage creator presentations and to ease communication challenges.

We recognized that many smaller schools and libraries could not afford an author visit. We know that staff is stretched to the limit, often managing more than one library or having other roles in addition to the library. They do not have time to co-ordinate an author visit with area schools and libraries in order to minimize the cost.

We also realized that many schools and libraries were not aware of funding programs available to offset some of the costs of an author presentation. As well, many authors did not know how to access funding programs.

We knew that crises happen. What if an author or illustrator is sick or has a family emergency and cannot visit at the appointed time? For the author, it would be near-impossible for them find their own replacement at the last minute. And it is a daunting prospect for a school or library to find a last-minute replacement.

Sometimes funding approval comes so close to the deadline that a school or library is left scrambling for an appropriate author or illustrator to come in before the money disappears. Similarly, sometimes an author is in a particular city or town, their travel has already been paid for, but they’ve only been booked for part of the day. They’re biding their time in a coffee shop, waiting until the train arrives when what they’d really like to be doing is one more presentation.

We also knew how difficult it was for authors and illustrators to manage their own bookings. It takes a LOT of time to write or illustrate a book and so figuring out a way to cluster school and library presentations in a way that doesn’t interfere with the creative process (and deadlines) was essential.

HK:  Who uses your services?

ABS:  Mostly children’s librarians, and school library staff, although we’ve also helped line up presenters for government functions, clubs and cultural groups. We focus on Ontario, but we’ve also satisfied requests from across Canada and even from the US.

HK:  What are the advantages to using the Authors' Booking Service?

ABS:  When you try to book an author on your own, you’re starting from scratch. You might have a particular author in mind, but you have no idea whether you can afford them or whether they’re available. You can email them and may never hear back – it could be because of board email filters or it could be because the email you have for the author is no longer valid. Whatever the reason, it is a frustrating exercise.

We keep track of our authors’ availability. We can inform you right up front about the author’s pricing, dates available and whether they’d be a good fit for your needs. We can also recommend alternatives. Every single ABS author has an author page which lists key information like presentation costs, travel fees, recent books and awards, presentation details and audience parameters.

We also send out a weekly email newsletter with news of interest, including availability details for our members’ upcoming tours. We can help you share an author with neighbouring schools in order to minimize costs. We can let you know when there are subsidies available.

If you have an urgent need – we can get things done quickly. For example, your scheduled author comes down with chicken pox two days before the visit. We can find you a replacement – and not just any replacement but a fab one. We’ve managed situations like a municipality wanting four energetic YA authors for a noon-time gig in a busy shopping mall, and oh, the event is on Friday.


HK:  Is there a charge for schools, libraries or other venues who want your help to book an author or illustrator?

ABS:  No. The service is free for schools and libraries. However, if you use our website as a resource, we ask that you book through us rather than emailing the author directly. This helps us track our bookings.

Middle-grade and YA author Sylvia McNicoll

HK:  What fee do authors/illustrators pay to use your service?

ABS:  For every presentation we book, our authors are charged a small flat fee, which goes towards maintaining the website, paying for our mailing list subscription and paper brochures. What’s left over is split between Valerie and myself.

HK:  What kinds of authors do you book through ABS?

ABS:  We’ve learned over the years what sorts of presenters are most in demand. Just writing or illustrating a great book is not enough, they must also be able to wow an audience.

We make a point of filling niches, so our presenters have specialty topics that fit in with
the curriculum. We also have speakers who can talk about the Franklin Expedition, hockey, the War of 1812, swimming across Lake Ontario and running a 100 mile marathon. Many of our authors have overcome great personal challenges and they can inspire your students to do the same.

Picture book author Lisa Dalrymple

The bulk of our authors (http://www.authorsbooking.com/wp/presenter-index/) live in Ontario and are usually available throughout the school year.

We also represent out of province authors who come to Ontario once or twice a year and need a clustering of bookings to make the trip viable.

And we provide special representation for those authors and illustrators who are current nominees for the Ontario Library Association's Forest of Reading (check out the website for current nominees).


HK:  Are there any authors that you do not work with e.g., those who live in the US?

ABS:  In order to keep our numbers manageable and still meet the needs of those using our service, it is necessary for us to be somewhat selective. We tend not to represent authors who are brand new unless they’ve garnered a significant number of awards or nominations. We have represented authors who live in the US when they’ve been shortlisted for the Forest of Reading Awards.

HK:  How do you recommend someone get in touch with you to use your services?

ABS:  Email us at abs@authorsbooking.com or visit our website at www.authorsbooking.com  We would love to hear from you!

You can also subscribe to our newsletter. Email us and ask to be added, or simply enter your email address on the subscribe button that’s in the top left portion of every ABS author’s page.


Read what those who've used the Authors' Booking Service say about its service:

David Carroll came to St. George's Junior School this morning and enthralled the students (gr. 3-5) with his Ultra marathon stories. He has great messages to share with the students through his stories...ie "we all have super powers" and "nothing is impossible". David kept the audience engaged with his slides, music, reading, story telling and chatting with the kids. Very personable, fun and easy going. Highly recommended! - Juli Belliveau

I saw the "Your Turn" section and had to thank you for recommending Sigmund Brouwer to us here in Sault Ste. Marie Ontario in June 2014. What a fantastic author! He shared his high energy, enthusiastic, informative and inspirational Rock and Roll Literacy Event with 6 of our schools in June then returned to visit 9 more in November. Being able to have this author has impacted our students' enthusiasm for reading, writing and improving library interest. I whole heartedly recommend inviting Sigmund Brouwer to any school, any time and be ready to have your world Rocked! - Roberta Chiarello, System Teacher-Librarian, Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board

About Marsha Skrypuch: "The feedback I have received from our students has been awesome. Everyone LOVED your presentations and are so inspired to read, and read more of your books. Bombs for Hitler copies were all gone by 8:40 a.m! There were so many inspired and motivated students." - Marla Cook

I am so grateful for Authors Booking Service. You have made the process of arranging author and illustrator visits so straightforward. The authors that we have hosted this year have been phenomenal! - Andrea Wesson

Thank you for helping me arrange Rebecca Bender's visit to our school. It was a smashing success! - Tom Holmes

Quotes from authors:

"I love the way ABS connects me with teachers, librarians and readers, without whom I'm not sure what I'd be doing." - Allan Stratton, author of Curse of the Dream Witch

Living on Prince Edward Island is a dream come true but Authors’ Booking Service makes it possible to come home again." - Sharon E. McKay, author of War Brothers and Charlie Wilcox

"Authors' Booking Service has been ideal for both promotion of my services and to smooth out the booking process: it allows a one-stop shopping for bookings, thus facilitating what to me is the less thrilling part of my work as an author. Marsha and Valerie are energizer bunnies in this regard, and have done great work in promoting school visits, and authors, and literacy, and thus all the good things that happen as result." - Bill Swan, Red Maple award-winning author of Real Justice: Fourteen and Sentenced to Death: The Steven Truscott Story

Picture book author/illustrator Mireille Messier

"Thanks to ABS I’ve been able to reach out and present my French picture books to immersion schools students that I would otherwise never have had a chance to meet." - Mireille Messier, author of Fatima et les voleurs de clémentines

"I love the way you guys tell a school that I am a 'wise choice' as a presenter. No one in my whole life has called me wise. It makes me feel grown-up and Gandalf-y -- neither of which is my natural state." - Richard Scrimger, author of Ink Me and Zomboy

"Not only do this powerhouse duo walk on water, but they patiently lead their authors to that water. What did we do without them?” - Teresa Toten, author of Governor General award-winning The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B

Please note: CanLit for LittleCanadians has received no remuneration for promoting the Authors' Booking Service.  As always, I promote youngCanLit, and its authors and illustrators, because I love it.  Without promotion, we could sadly lose the wealth of youngCanLit gracing our bookshelves.