writes about war from a young person's view #bannedbyrussia
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.
People who meet me tend not to realize that I am an extreme introvert. I am good at building characters though, and one that has proven very useful is Marsha the extrovert. I have been mostly hunkered down at home writing, writing, writing, but I crunched together 7 presentations over the last three days and so got a chance to air out Marsha the extrovert.
Monday morning’s presentation was at the Palmerston branch of the Toronto Public Library, organized by Rachelle Gooden who is a TPL Adult Literacy Senior Services Specialist. I spoke about Adrift at Sea, which was shortlisted for the Golden Oak Award. It was an awesome event!
On Tuesday afternoon, I drove back to the GTA, this time to the ARS Armenian School in North York.
First I had the honour of speaking to the grade 8 students about my very first novel, The Hunger, published in 1999. An interesting experience, considering these students weren’t even born yet. It was so neat to answer their superb questions and to realize how well this novel has stood the test of time.
Next I spoke to the grade threes about Aram’s Choice and Call Me Aram. So neat!!
On Tuesday night, I spoke to another Golden Oak group, this time at Downsview Library. And this time, Tuan came too. Such a moving experience.
On Wednesday, I spent most of the day at Birchmount CI, with the wonderful Julia Zwaan and grade 10 history students. My presentation was about the real people behind my books.
So now Marsha the Extrovert retires for a bit and the real Marsha, the introvert hunkering down and writing yet another book, takes over.