Prisoners in the Promised Land
by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch Scholastic Canada,
2007
$14.99 hardcover
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The
heart-wrenching story of one girl's experience at a Ukrainian
internment camp in Quebec during World War I.
Anya's family emigrates from Ukraine hoping for a fresh start and a new
life in Canada. Soon after they cram into a tiny apartment in Montreal,
WWI is declared. Because their district of Ukraine was annexed by
Austria -- now at war with the Commonwealth -- many Ukrainians in
Canada are declared "enemy aliens" and sent to internment camps. Anya
and her family are shipped off to the Spirit Lake Internment Camp, in
the remote wilderness of northern Quebec. Though conditions are brutal,
at least Anya is at a camp that houses entire families together, and
even in this barbed-wire world, she is able to make new friends and
bring some happiness to the people around her.
Author Marsha Skrypuch, whose own grandfather was interned during WWI
at Jasper Internment Camp in Alberta, travelled to Spirit Lake
during her research for the book. "When we got to the cemetery, I was
overwhelmed with emotion. Imagine seeing a series of crosses, all grown
over with brush and abandoned, and knowing that the real person you
based a character on had a little sister buried there? That real little
girl was Mary Manko. She was only six years old when she and her family
were taken from their Montreal home and set to Spirit Lake Internment
Camp. Her two-year old sister Carolka died at the camp. Mary Manko is
in her nineties now and is the last known survivor of the Ukrainian
internment operations." explains Skrypuch.
Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is the author of many books for children, including Silver Threads and Enough as well as her YA novels, Hope's War, The Hunger and Nobody's Child, which was nominated for the Red Maple Award, the Alberta Rocky Mountain Book Award, and the B.C. Stellar Award. Her chapter book, Aram's Choice, was nominated for the CLA Children's Book of the Year Award for 2007, as well as for the Silver Birch Express Award, 2007, and the Golden Oak Award, 2008.
Reviews
"Skrypuch has packed the book with an amazing amount of details without bogging the story down. For fans of historical fiction, this book is a dream." (full review)-- CM Online
"Anya's story, in addition to outlining times when her heart is "wrapped in sadness," is full of a young girl's hopes and dreams, her ingenuity in helping her family, and the universal themes of growing up. It will appeal to young people for its direct and honest voice, and in addition to a great story, it contains an important lesson: never again should we deny people their basic rights and freedoms because of where they come from."
-- Bev Brenna, Saskatoon Star Pheonix
"We experience vividly the feelings of a sensitive and intelligent young girl. Anya cannot understand why the deportations have taken place, or why the recent immigrants, who have suffered greatly to come to Canada, must be treated like dangerous prisoners."
-- Helen Norrie, Winnipeg Free Press
