writes about war from a young person's view #bannedbyrussia
From Voya Magazine:
Skrypuch … has created an absorbing glimpse into a dark period in world history and the human consequences of war.
From Kirkus:
“An eye-opening exposé of historical outrages committed in two countries, with intriguing glimpses of a minority group that is not well-known in the Americas.”
It was fun being the YA columnist at the Winnipeg Review for the last few years, and now I’ve handed my pen over to Anita Daher. She turned the tables on me, and launched her column by interviewing ME! HA!
Check it out, here.
Here’s an article that I wrote a few years ago about the Montreal parishioners who were interned at Spirit Lake Internment Camp. It was published in a book by St. Michael’s Church in 2011 when they celebrated their 100th anniversary. By January 5, 1915, there were 364 “Austrians” (ie, Ukrainians) interned at Spirit Lake.
While doing research for my 2007 novel, Prisoners in the Promised Land, I visited the place where the internment camp had been. I also laid flowers at the internee grave site. It is shameful that this grave site is abandoned and in disarray, on property sold to a farmer.
Never Forget.
A merry postal elf just dropped off a box filled with author copies of Making Bombs, in French!
Underground Soldier is a STARRED selection for CCBC’s Best Books for Kids & Teens!
Stolen Child and Making Bombs for Hitler were starred selections in previous year. So happy for Larissa, Lida and Luka!
Library Ladies extraordinaire Karen Upper and JoAnne Richards invited Natalie Hyde and myself up to the Parry Sound area for a series of carefully coordinated school visits. Karen and JoAnne kindly hosted me and Natalie in their own homes, and we were treated like royalty! We also got a chance to see for ourselves JoAnne’s famous little library of the near north, which is at the end of her drive. Here’s JoAnne, me and Natalie, little library in the background.
Wow! Speak about thorough and enthusiastic review! Thank you, Libris Notes!
My favourite quote is this: “Dance of the Banished is an excellent piece of historical fiction and Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch’s best work to date.”
Zeynep, fierce and bold, and Ali, caring and principled, live in the same village in Anatolia and plan to marry. Unexpectedly, Ali is sent to Canada and Zeynep is left behind. Each writes in a journal for the other, but as war comes to both countries it is unlikely their words will ever be shared. Still, they keep on. Zeynep writes an eyewitness account of the genocide from the point of view of the Alevi Kurds, telling a little known side of this tragic story. Ali, in turn, gives an accounting of life in an internment camp in, surprisingly, Kapuskasing. For each, the journal entries are a coping mechanism, a way to bear witness to the atrocities of war and ultimately, to bring justice.
Skrypuch’s compelling characters give an authentic voice to this well researched story. It is definitely a book for adults as well as teens. And although it is a story of war it includes moments of great joy, making it much more than a tragedy. Whether together in Turkey or alone in banishment, both Zeynep and Ali are able to lose themselves when they dance. Their troubles are momentarily forgotten in an ecstasy of whirling that reminds us of the cyclical nature of human events. Preserving the past, as Skrypuch does so well, is part of that cycle.
Dance of the Banished
By Marsha Skrypuch
978-1-927485-65-1
Pajama Press
August 22, 2014
288 pp
Ages 12+
Penny Draper lives in Victoria, British Columbia. She is the author of the award-winning “Disaster Strikes!” series, historical fiction that places young protagonists at the centre of real Canadian disasters.
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