writes about war from a young person's view #bannedbyrussia
Nyl is just trying to stay alive. Ever since the Soviet dictator, Stalin, started to take control of farms like the one Nyl’s family lives on, there is less and less food to go around. On top of bad harvests and a harsh winter, conditions worsen until it’s clear the lack of food is not just chance… but a murderous plan leading all the way to Stalin.
Alice has recently arrived from Canada with her father, who is here to work for the Soviets… until they realize that the people suffering the most are all ethnically Ukrainian, like Nyl. Something is very wrong, and Alice is determined to help.
Desperate, Nyl and Alice come up with an audacious plan that could save both of them—and their community. But can they survive long enough to succeed?
Known as the Holodomor, or death by starvation, Ukraine’s Famine-Genocide in the 1930s was deliberately caused by the Soviets to erase the Ukrainian people and culture. Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch brings this lesser-known, but deeply resonant, historical world to life in a story about unity, perseverance, and the irrepressible hunger to survive.
HREC ED teaching resources on the Holodomor here.
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Reviews:
New York Times: Skrypuch handles difficult themes with intelligence and honesty
Historical Novel Society: This is an excellent and terrible book. Well-written, it includes convincing and sympathetic characters, and it bears witness to an awful historical event: Stalin’s partially successful attempt between 1930 and 1933 to starve Ukraine to death. Its author, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, is, in her own words, “fierce in her pursuit of truth.”
School Library Connection: This fast-paced novel will engage readers who will easily relate to Nyl and his siblings. The death by starvation of the millions of people of Ukraine is a relatively unknown historical fact
but important in understanding the will of the current Ukrainian people to resist Putin and contemporary Russia.
Publishers Weekly: A timely, hard-hitting novel.
Canadian Materials: Highly Recommended
Helen Kubiw’s CanlitforlittleCanadians: Winterkill is a big story. It is so big that I can’t possibly reveal all the details and nuances of Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch’s story in a short review. There are good people and evil ones, both Ukrainian and Russian. There is joy and heartache, resourcefulness and laziness, greed and generosity. And there is oppression. Though much of Winterkill deals with the Holodomor, the 1932-1933 genocide of Ukrainians by starvation, it’s a story that’s bigger than that. It’s about that oppression of people and culture. There is resilience, as Nyl demonstrates with his story, but there is death and destruction and horrific suffering. And Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch tells it with such authenticity that this book of historical fiction could be a biography. Still, she tells it with sensitivity and compassion and allowed this Ukrainian-Canadian to read it with appreciation, albeit filled with sorrow.
I am honored that Traitors Among Us has been selected alongside these stellar works has best historicals of the year!
It was wonderful to speak with schools in Georgia and Arkansas this week, facilitated by Scholastic Book Fairs. Such great questions! I even got to explain how to use a library’s vast database of online resources as a research tool during a lockdown! Ha!
Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/parnassusbooks1/videos/805286050154170
Thrilled to see that Trapped in Hitler’s Web has been shortlisted for the Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award!!! Congratulations to everyone shortlisted, including my friends Valerie Sherrard, Wesley King, Sigmund Brouwer and Heather Smith. Here‘s the complete nomination list.
Originally from Ukraine, Maria and her older sister Krystia have made it through separate ordeals during World War II and are now back together again. They cannot believe their luck: Hitler is dead, and the war has ended.
And yet, they are not as safe as they thought. As the sisters settle into their shared bunk with other exhausted refugees in the Displaced Persons camp, a familiar girl steps through the door, claiming to be Bianka, a Polish forced laborer who worked on a farm with Maria during the war.
Maria is outraged. This girl is not Bianka, but Sophie Huber, an enthusiastic member of the League of German Girls. She’s a Hitler Girl.
Before Maria can turn her in, Sophie claims that Krystia and Maria are Nazis, and the Soviet soldiers don’t seem to be terribly particular about whom they’re taking. The girls are taken away, now in a danger they never imagined. Will they be able to prove their innocence?
Reviews
★ “This is ultimately a story of the strength of the human spirit. Krystia and Maria are survivors, and they never give up, drawing strength from remembering their parents’ belief in them as they struggle to stay alive. Gripping, harsh, and superbly written.” – KIRKUS, starred review
“The Ukrainian-Canadian author has based her story on family members who gave their lives to free Ukraine from tyrannies of the right and left in the 1940s. Told from the alternating points of view of Krystia and Maria, this novel for older middle grade is well-paced, with an economy of description that conveys setting without slowing down the action.” – HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY
“A sophisticated approach to storytelling … Nuanced … Morality and the intricacies of geo-politics are among the themes in this fast-moving suspense novel which will have young readers racing through it to find out if, with all odds against them, the sisters can escape their captors. The novel is a good example of what some people call ‘edu-tainment,’ teaching important lessons and at the same time entertaining restless young readers.” – SAN DIEGO JEWISH WORLD
“Powerful, heart-wrenching historical fiction that takes place right after WWII. Heart-pounding action as the sisters learn that they need to rely on each other in order to survive being held by Soviet troops. A very satisfying addition to other Scholastic books in the Making Bombs for Hitler trilogy.” – YOUNG ADULT BOOKS CENTRAL
“Skrypuch has a talent for middle-grade writing. Her ability to set a scene and create tension is admirable, and it makes for exciting reading. Traitors Among Us is a high-stakes look at the ‘after’ part of World War II … Traitors Among Us is a fast-paced read that will appeal to a wide cross section of readers.” – CRACKING THE COVER
“A fascinating read … A harrowing tale of the often overlooked war refugees that were stuck in Soviet areas … A must-read for children who wish to learn more about the people who were focused on putting their lives back together post-WWII.” – THIS BLISS LIFE
From The Children’s War review: I started Traitors Among Us one evening and sat up until about 3:30 AM reading to the end, because I couldn’t put it down and needed to know what Krystia and Maria’s fate was going to be.
From CanlitforlittleCanadians, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch [is] a master storyteller … [who] takes us to those war-torn countries to travel with the girls as they walk dusty roads with thousands of refugees, toil on farms, hide from dangerous people, and find and offer support, even as they endure hunger, cold, fear and uncertainty. Every atmospheric scene is one of edge-of-your-seat nerves, worry that the next ally they make may not be one, shock at executions witnessed, and solace from a sisterly bond and fleeting memories of home.
“Traitors Among Us” is exciting and easy to read. The moral decisions the girls face are interesting enough that adults can also enjoy the book. This excellent novel is a great choice for parent/child discussion groups. Off the Shelf, Rabbi Rachel Esserman