This year’s pysanky (so far)
Category: News stories
A special edition of Prisoners in the Promised Land
Many thanks to The Ukrainian Canadian Congress, thanks to Tania Sunak and Olya Grod of the UCC National Education Council and @InternmentCda for funding a special edition of Prisoners in the Promised Land for senior students at TDCSB Ukrainian language schools. Thank you to Scholastic Canada for making this possible. Thank you Josyf Cardinal Slipyj TCDSB for sending these wonderful pics!
The Seeds of Memory
Congratulations to Mateusz Świetlicki on the publication of this groundbreaking work. Ukrainian historical themes have been sadly absent in most popular literature, including literature for young people. This book is a comprehensive and perceptive examination of Canadian works tackling the topic, including my own.
Five new pysanky, and now back to work
I’ve started a new manuscript and to keep on track, I need to write a minimum of 3,000 words a week. This week, I had written 3648 words by Friday, so on the weekend I rewarded myself by writing 5 extra-small pysanky. Did 440 words yesterday … tick, tick, tick…
There you are, my little fishies …
Witnesses, Deniers and Bourgeois Troublemakers. The Holodomor and Ukrainian-Canadian Collaboration in Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch’s Winterkill (2022)
Thank you, Dr. Mateusz Świetlicki, for this thorough examination of Winterkill, particularly in terms of historical veracity and how the novel gives needed context to the Russian Federation’s current genocidal war against the Ukrainian nation and culture. This paper is a great resource for educators who are doing a novel study with Winterkill. Here’s the link.
Cedar Hill ES, Lawrenceville, Georgia
Some really great questions about the Holodomor and Winterkill, particularly about individual characters in the book and what their lives looked like after the book was over. But my favorite question of the virtual session was, “What’s it like to be over 60 years old?” I told him that inside, I still feel 12 years old. Another student asked if I would ever work with an illustrator to make one of my books into a graphic novel and I said that was a great idea and would love to see it happen with Making Bombs for Hitler. I showed them Five Stalks of Grain by Adrian Lysenko and Ivanka Galadza and suggested they would like it. I also showed them Sylvia McNicholl’s What the Dog Knows when asked about my current fave book. Thank you, HREC ED, for funding this presentation.
Delightful letter from a young reader
Teachers’ guide for Winterkill
Very pleased to have a teachers’ guide for Winterkill that is freely available for use. Thank you, HREC ED, for funding it, and thank you Kristen Davison for creating it.
Thaden School virtual visit
It was so nice to visit with 6th to 8th grade students from Bentonville Arkansas. We talked about my WWII novels and the real people behind the stories as well as what it’s like to be dyslexic and to write books. Middle School Student council members fielded the questions and did the introductions. Very well organized and great questions. There were 140 students participating and Sarah the librarian got this snap of one of the classes. Thank you so much for the invitation, Sarah!
