Category: News stories
MYRCA and Marsha
From here
October 2, 2014
By Colette
By Colette
On September 26th 2014,the MANITOBA YOUNG READER’S CHOICE AWARD was presented to Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch for her novel Making Bombs for Hitler. The award was presented at a special ceremony held at the Manitoba Theatre for Young People, with hundreds of kids in attendnace. Marsha was selected by Manitoban tweens who had read at least 5 books from the nominated list.
Students and fans gathered to hear Marsha Continue reading “MYRCA and Marsha”
Friday in Winnipeg: Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Day!
What a thrill it was to see all the cars and buses pulling up to the theatre as I snuck inside unnoticed. Many kids were clutching copies of Making Bomb for Hitler, Stolen Child and Underground Soldier.
Here are Bairdmore students catching a few extra pages before heading up to the balcony!
The two young MCs were amazingly calm, cool and professional. I can’t imagine being so poised at their age!
When they announced me as this year’s winner, I got up from the audience and walked onto the stage. Here’s the awesome award:
I also got a cheque! I gave a short talk, reading, and kids asked questions…
… and then I was whisked away to the lobby to sign books. All of my books quickly sold out, and I found out later that one of the MCs did not get a copy because she was at the back of the line-up, so I gave one of the organizers my personal copy of Making Bombs for Hitler, signed to her.
Here are some of the students at the signing table:
On Thursday night, I had pre-signed 350 WWII trilogy bookmark as I had been told that there would be 315 kids in attendance. As it turned out, there were exactly 350 kids there. Eeek! The organizers made sure each student got exactly ONE signed bookmark. I also had some postcards for Dance of the Banished on hand and gave all of those out as well.
After all the buses left, the MYRCA committee treated me to a fabulous lunch at Chez Sophie on the bridge over top the river. Lovely view, great company and fantastic food!
After lunch, another kidcritter, Julie K, picked me up. We had coffee and a chat, and then Julie took me on a quick car tour of the city and dropped me off at the airport.
A whirlwind trip. I’m still on a high! Thank you Thin Air. Thank you, MYRCA!
More Silver Birch day pics
Signing:
With Erin Woods, Pajama Press:
Can it get more exciting? Silver Birch day!
They have just announced the finalists:
And here they announce the winner! Do I look a little bit SHOCKED?!
Thanks, Pat Thornton, for the great shots!
Marsha’s Forest of Reading exciting Monday!
I got home from Book Week late Saturday afternoon, had one day to do laundry and rest, then on Monday, drove to London for their first Forest of Reading event. It was held at the Western Fair Grounds and the volunteers were absolutely spectacular, thinking of EVERYTHING.
The audience! 1900 strong!
In London, I won the Silver Birch non-fiction award, David Carroll won the Silver Birch fiction award, and Eric Walters won the Red Maple. Here’s the stunningly amazingly beautiful plaque I was given:
I gave it to Tuyet, who was THRILLED:
She and her husband are also holding footstep shaped letters from the students of Our Lady of Lourdes.
There was lots of news coverage for the London event. Like this article on CTV. And this one in the London paper. And this CTV video.
Our Lady of Lourdes — May 1st visit
Had a great day on Thursday at Our Lady of Lourdes in Delaware Ontario. I’m here with Marisa Zammit, OLOL librarian, but also a fabulous writer. I am anxious for Marisa to finish her WWII novel! Several of her students are avid writers too. I think a writing club is in the future for OLOL, just saying….
This was Marisa’s reaction to talk of a writers’ club at OLOL. <G>
Roch Carrier Literacy Night
Woodstock knows what it’s doing when it comes to parent and teacher involvement! What a lovely crowd it was that came out last Wednesday. Here I am with a local young reader.
So much fun to present at the 2014 MASC Young Authors’ Conference
Here are all of us MASC presenters, from left to right: Martin Springett, Art Slade, Ruth Ohi, Vikki VanSickle, me, Richard Scrimger, Marthe Jocelyn, Lesley Livingston.
Here is me, with Art Slade, the world’s fastest talker. We were each given 2 minutes to introduce ourselves and Art delivered his auctioneer style. You should have seen the look of awe on the kids’ faces!
MASC was held from Tuesday to Thursday at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum — a FABULOUS venue! On the Monday before, I presented at two Ottawa library branches, plus gave a presentation for the local Ukrainian community.
St. Jerome visit
Writing workshops are so awesomely fun! Thanks Anne Marie Sisti of St. Jerome School in Mississauga for sending me this pic of last week’s writing workshop with your talented students.
