writes about war from a young person's view #bannedbyrussia
Good to see this info page posted on the Georgetown Ontario site about the Georgetown Boys, who were Armenian orphans rescued by Canadians after the Armenian Genocide. When I wrote Aram’s Choice and Call Me Aram, it took quite a bit of sleuthing to gather the information. Now a lot of it is available online. Nicely done! The Georgetown boys were brought to Canada on July 1, 1923 and they represent Canada’s first international humanitarian effort. An all too timely piece of history, alas.
From the New Beginnings series, comes Call Me Aram, the sequel to Aram’s Choice. Aram Davidian, like his fellow orphaned Armenian refugees, is delighted with his new home on a farm in Georgetown, Ontario. But despite the excitement his new surroundings, Aram worries about his young friend Mgerdich, who was injured on the long trip to Canada and is recovering in France. And what is more worrying is that he and the other boys have been assigned new English names. How will their extended families find them one day if all the boys have new identities? Even when their translator assures them that their hosts want only the best for the boys, Aram cannot accept the name David Adams. When Mgerdich finally arrives at the farm, a relieved Aram finds the courage to lead the boys in a gentle revolt. Together, they must find a way to convince the Canadian adults that the boys, as grateful as they are for their new lives, cannot forget their old ones. Theymust keep their names.
Every incident in Call Me Aram is based on real events from the lives of the Georgetown Boys — from the boys’ reaction to porridge and cameras and weekly showers to their revolt to get their own names back. Marsha spent hundreds of hours listening to taped interviews of the original Georgetown Boys in order to glean these snippets of truth.
Continue reading “Call Me Aram”
From the New Beginnings series, comes Aram’s Choice, a story that follows the life of a boy who loses his family in the Armenian genocide in Turkey and is exiled in Greece. The book follows Aram while he travels to Canada with forty-seven other Armenian boys in what was Canada’s first international humanitarian effort.
Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch first heard about the Armenian Genocide seventeen years ago while doing research for a magazine article about the first “Georgetown Boys” — a group of 47 Armenian orphans who were rescued by Canada in 1923 and were housed and schooled at a farm in Georgetown, Ontario.
After interviewing the son of a “Georgetown Boy,” Marsha was left with more questions than answers. For example, why were all of the rescued orphans male? Why were they all between the ages of eight and twelve? What happened to their parents? What happened to their sisters?
After years of research, Marsha was able to write Aram’s Choice. Based on true events, this book gives children a chance to learn about effects of genocide through one that the Turkish government has long denied ever happened.
Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is the author of many books for children, including Silver Threads and Enough as well as her YA novels, 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.
Muriel Wood has been illustrating books for children since 1964, including the Canadian classic, The Olden Days Coat written by Margaret Laurence. Other books that she has illustrated include Old Bird, and the first two titles from the New Beginnings series, Lizzie’s Storm and Scared Sarah.
Continue reading “Aram’s Choice”
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.
Continue reading “The Hunger”
Orphaned by the Adana massacre in 1909, Mariam and her siblings, together with their friend Kevork and his aunt, travel home to Marash hoping to find their remaining family still alive. Six years later, when the teens face deportation from Turkey, they are torn apart despite their best efforts to stay together. One thing sustains them throughout their horrifying ordeals — the hope that they might one day be reunited.
A sequel to the highly successful The Hunger, Nobody’s Child is a stirring and engaging story set during the Armenian Genocide, one of the twentieth century’s most significant events.
Continue reading “Nobody’s Child”
Daughter of War is a gripping story of enduring love and loyalty set against the horrors of Turkey during World War I.
Teenagers Kevork and his betrothed Marta are the lucky ones. They have managed so far to survive the Armenian genocide in Turkey, and both are disguised as Muslims. But Marta is still in Turkey, pregnant with another man’s child. And Kevork is living as an Arab in Syria.
Kevork yearns to get back into Turkey and search for Marta, but with the war raging and the genocide still in progress, the journey will be impossibly dangerous. Meanwhile, Marta worries that even if Kevork has survived and they are reunited, will he be able to accept what she has become? And what has happened to her sister, Mariam, who was sold as a slave to the highest bidder?
Continue reading “Daughter of War”
It is thrilling to see that the United Church of Canada has digitized 128 photographic images of the Georgetown Boys. It can be accessed here.
Not familiar with the Georgetown Boys?After the Armenian Genocide of 1915, Canadian churches and the Armenian Canadian community collected donations and purchased Cedarvale Farm in Georgetown Ontario and transformed it into a home for 109 orphaned Armenian boys.
I wrote two books on this topic, Aram’s Choice and Call Me Aram.
A moving experience in Georgetown Ontario with Armenian students bussed in from all over. As I sat on a picnic table and watched these very young children playing in the trees and chasing after each other with shouts of joy I couldn’t help but think of those first orphaned little boys who came in 1923, in what became known as Canada’s Noble Experiment — ie — Canada’s first international relief effort.
Thousands of children had been orphaned during the Armenian Genocide. By 1923, many had taken refuge in Corfu, in caves, on beaches, in old abandoned barracks.
109 boys got a chance to start a new life in Canada. They left behind grandmothers and sisters and younger brothers, but they never forgot who they were.
It was heartening to see hundreds of Armenian Canadian children and their families coming together in Georgetown today, to remember those first little boys, and more importantly, to remember those who didn’t survive. One hundred years ago the Turkish government tried to obliterate Armenians, their culture, their blood. They killed 1.5 million Armenians, but the nation and memory lives and thrives worldwide.
It was an honour to be one of the speakers at this commemorative event. I will never forget.
I was honoured to present at St Stephen’s Armenian Elementary School in Watertown MA last week. Before speaking to the older students, I dropped in on the very youngest. How do you talk about genocide with the very young? And especially how do you do that about a genocide in which their own ancestors had died? Gently, and not directly.
With my chapter books, Aram’s Choice and Call Me Aram, I spoke about the fact of these first 50 orphaned Armenian boys and their journey half way around the world to Canada and Georgetown Ontario. How and why they were orphaned wasn’t part of the conversation. Instead, we concentrated on what it would be like to be one of 50 very young children traveling across the world with just one adult teacher. In increments, they will learn the rest.
