Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

OK
About Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is the acclaimed author of 20+ books for young people including her popular WWII Making Bombs for Hitler novel trilogy and her non-fiction like Adrift at Sea: A Vietnamese Boy's Story of Survival.
Marsha is dyslexic and didn't learn to read until she was 9. The first book that she read and understood was Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens and reading that book over the course of a year when she was in grade 4 for the second time was a life-transforming experience. It taught her that reading wasn't just a subject in school, but an immersive pleasure. By grade 8 she had read all of the big fat novels in the children's department of the Brantford Public Library whose authors' last names started with either A, B, C or D. By grade 9 she had figured out better ways to choose books.
Marsha now considers dyslexia to be a gift that helps her write the kinds of books that she does -- about people plunged in war whose stories haven't been told before and from perspectives rarely seen in children's literature. Marsha has deep respect for the intelligence and compassion of her young readers and she writes the books she wishes she could have found to read when she was a kid.
Marsha loves speaking with students of all ages, especially those who are struggling academically or who feel "different".
Customers Also Bought Items By
Are you an author?
Author Updates
-
-
-
Blog postWith the war, I’ve been obsessed with bees as a uniquely Ukrainian symbol of resistance. And blue and yellow.2 weeks ago Read more
-
-
-
-
-
Blog postIn interviews and reviews, over the years my identity has been mislabeled as Polish, Jewish, Iranian, Armenian, Lithuanian, Ukranian [sic] (please add in that first i!]. To set the record straight, I am Canadian of Ukrainian heritage. I’ve written books on a variety of themes and set within many historical eras, always concentrating on young … Continue reading "My Ukrainian-themed books"1 month ago Read more
-
-
-
Blog postI run a private online crit group where participants “pay” by giving critiques in order to get them from other participants. Recently, one participant posted this question after my feedback on her work-in-progress Question: I’m not sure if I totally understand something you advised me on. You said, “No second stage directions in one sentence.”an … Continue reading "Overwriting"2 months ago Read more
-
-
-
Blog postWondering which organizations give the best bang for the buck to help Ukraine? Canadians, the Canada-Ukraine Foundation is the most efficient way to get your entire donation to the people who need it. Money is best (ie, not blankets, clothing etc) so the exact supplies can be purchased as needed. If you are American, the US-Ukraine Foundation … Continue reading "Help Ukraine with donations, but choose wisely"2 months ago Read more
-
-
Titles By Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
World War II may be over. But two sisters are far from safe.
Inspired by true events, this is the latest gripping and powerful novel from the acclaimed author of Making Bombs for Hitler.
Sisters Krystia and Maria have been through the worst -- or so they think. World War II ravaged their native Ukraine, but they both survived, and are now reunited in a displaced persons camp.
Then another girl accuses the sisters of being Hitler Girls -- people who collaborated with the Nazis. Nothing could be further from the truth; during the horrors of the war, both sisters resisted the Nazis and everything they stood for. But the Soviets, who are now in charge, don't listen to the sisters' protests. Krystia and Maria are taken away and interrogated for crimes they never committed.
Caught in a dangerous trap, the sisters must look to each other for strength and perseverance. Can they convince their captors that they're innocent -- or escape to safety before it's too late?
A beautiful omnibus edition of the award-winning biographies Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan’s Rescue from War and One Step at a Time: A Vietnamese Child Finds Her Way
Tuyet remembers little about life before the Saigon orphanage, before polio left her limping and in constant pain, before the war made it too dangerous to stand under the bomb-filled Vietnam sky. Unable to play with the other children and knowing that at eight she is too old be adopted, she helps care for the babies in the orphanage. So when frantic aid-workers load a van full of babies and take Tuyet as well, she thinks that’s why she is there: as a carer. She can’t guess that, with the capital about to fall to the North Vietnamese, she is being evacuated on the last airplane full of at-risk children bound for new adoptive homes in the west.
Before she knows what is happening, Tuyet is whisked into life with the Morris family: Mom, Dad, their biological daughter Beth, and their adopted children Lara and Aaron. It takes some time to really understand that she isn’t there to help care for baby Aaron: she is there to be their daughter. She learns that the bright sparks in the sky are stars, not bombs, that flames on a birthday cake are nothing to fear, and that her only jobs are to play and to be loved. But a bigger test stands before Tuyet: corrective surgery for her twisted ankle, and a gruelling physiotherapy regimen. Unable to speak English yet and terrified that the procedure will fail, Tuyet must draw on every ounce of courage and focus on her dream of running and kicking a ball in a pair of matching shoes.
Sky of Bombs, Sky of Stars: A Vietnamese War Orphan Finds Home is an omnibus edition of the award-winning Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan’s Rescue from War and One Step at a Time: A Vietnamese Child Finds Her Way. Retold by acclaimed children’s author Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, Tuyet’s dramatic true story is based on personal interviews and enhanced with archival photos.
Short-listed for the 2004 Rocky Mountain Book Award and for the 2003 Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award and long-listed for the 2002 CBC Canada Reads People’s Choice Book
Kataryna Baliuk, a gifted fine arts student, is hoping to have a fresh start at Cawthra School for the Arts after a less-than-successful year at the neighbouring Catholic high school.
But her hopes for a peaceful Grade 10 are shattered when she comes home from her first day at Cawthra and finds the RCMP interrogating her grandfather, Danylo Feschuk. Kat learns that Danylo is accused of being a policeman for the Nazis in World War II Ukraine, and what’s worse, he is suspected of having participated in atrocities against civilians.
When the story is exposed in the local newspaper, Kat and her family become the centre of a media storm. Her grades in school and her relationships with friends suffer. Her only support comes from her family and Ian, a classmate with whom she discovers she has more in common than just artistic promise.
Fifteen-year-old Paula’s perfectionism drives every facet of her life, from her marks in Grade 10 to the pursuit of a "perfect body." A history project brings her face to face with her grandmother’s early life and, as she delves deeper, she is disturbed to find eerie parallels between her own struggles and what she learns of the past.
As Paula slowly destroys the very body she’s trying to perfect, her spirit is torn between settling for her imperfect life or entering the shadowy mystery of her grandmother’s Armenian past. The shimmering Euphrates River beckons her, but, as she soon discovers, there are many things worse than imperfection.- ←Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- Next Page→