Tag: Manitoba Young Readers Choice Award
Making Bombs for Hitler
In this companion book to the award-winning Stolen Child, a young girl is forced into slave labour in a munitions factory in Nazi Germany. In Stolen Child, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch introduced readers to Larissa, a victim of Hitler’s largely unknown Lebensborn program. In this companion novel, readers will learn the fate of Lida, her sister, who was also kidnapped by the Germans and forced into slave labour — an Ostarbeiter.
In addition to her other tasks, Lida’s small hands make her the perfect candidate to handle delicate munitions work, so she is sent to a factory that makes bombs. The gruelling work and conditions leave her severely malnourished and emotionally traumatized, but overriding all of this is her concern and determination to find out what happened to her vulnerable younger sister.
With rumours of the Allies turning the tide in the war, Lida and her friends conspire to sabotage the bombs to help block the Nazis’ war effort. When her work camp is finally liberated, she is able to begin her search to learn the fate of her sister.
In this exceptional novel Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch delivers a powerful story of hope and courage in the face of incredible odds.
Continue reading “Making Bombs for Hitler”
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!
Thin Air — Wednesday
The above pic is how I spent Wednesday morning. Here’s a write up about it. For this first session, I was given a Madonna-type headset with a microphone bud at my lips. I have no idea why it suddenly began to BOOM partway through the presentation. Quite disconcerting! That kink was smoothed over the rest of the week though, as I was given a lapel mike after that. Great groups of students with FABULOUS questions! Wonderful to interact with so many avid readers.
On Wednesday afternoon, I presented at Acadia School — again — so great to meet many avid readers and excited fans of my WWII trilogy. Teacher-librarian Jo-Anne Gibson emailed me afterwards: “My students are still talking about your presentation. I’ve had a lot of authors at Acadia and few have made such a lasting impact.”
From there I went to Winnipeg’s Children’s Literature Roundtable pizza party and author talk. Again, such a wonderful opportunity to meet many children, parents, educators and librarians who had read and loved Making Bombs for Hitler and other of my books. Truly, this is an author’s dream!
After the pizza party, I was whisked away to Holy Family Nursing Home for a presentation to the Alpha Omega Alumni Association. Interesting to present to students all day and finish with a presentation to adults, and not just any adults, but a group of people who had family connections to my trilogy. Many in the audience had personally lived through the times reflected in my books. Because of this, the questions were very interesting.
A couple of Alpha Omega members kept me company later in the evening as I had a very late dinner back at the hotel — Manitoba smoked goldeye is delish.