writes about war from a young person's view #bannedbyrussia
Last week I had the pleasure of meeting with 300 students in 7th grade at J.L. Simpson in Leesburg Virginia over the course of 6 virtual sessions. Jeannine, their media specialist extraordinaire cobbled together grants from the Nora Roberts Foundation and HREC ED to make this happen and also to purchase copies of Winterkill for the students. The planning had been in the works since April of 2023! Students asked great questions, and look at the notes they took!
I had a wonderful visit with Roberts Elementary in Gwinnett County, Georgia last week. I’ve been virtually visiting students at this school for a number of years and have such respect for their media specialist, Tiffanie, who has an infectiously positive and generous perspective on life. I also love how her students come up with the BEST questions. There were about 9 classes participating in the session and each one had 3 questions. My favorite question from yesterday was, if you could tell your younger self something, what would it be? My answer: that the people who told me I was a slow learner were wrong. I was a different learner, and that would ultimately be a gift.
Have to say, meeting with students is one of the most wonderful aspects of being a writer.
Tiffanie made my day when she emailed this after the session: WOW! WOW! WOW!
You have a magical way of engaging our students sparking curiosity that lasts way beyond your visit! You answered their questions with such grace, care, and honesty. We loved it!
Thank you, Tiffney, for your well-considered questions. I enjoyed our discussion!
Eleven of my twelve World-Read-Aloud-Day donated virtual visits were claimed by American schools, but one I gave to Melita School in Manitoba, and it came about when two grade 8 students, Chaz and Zander, were doing a project on one of my books and asked to meet with me virtually. Normally, I would have had to say no, but World Read Aloud Day was coming up, so I suggested we meet on that day, with their whole class. It was a wonderful visit with Ms Anderson and her students! Here are some pics.
A reader recently asked if my second trilogy, Don’t Tell the Nazis, Trapped in Hitler’s Web and Traitors Among Us can can be read out of order.
My answer: While there is enough context in each of the novels so that they can be read as standalones, to get a true picture of Krystia and Maria’s experiences in WWII, they should be read in chronological order, which is:
I am so very thrilled to have this novel finally available for Ukrainian readers. Yulia Lyubka’s translation is brilliant and I LOVE the cover art by Anya Styopina. Making Bombs and Stolen Girl tell the tale of two Ukrainian sisters torn apart by the Nazis in WWII. One is considered racially valuable and is kidnapped, brainwashed into thinking she’s German, and placed in a Nazi home. The other sister is considered not racially valuable, and is starved and worked nearly to death. Although these books are historical, they’re unfortunately also current because Putin channels Hitler and Ukrainians are currently going through this all again. The publisher is Books XI. In Canada they’re available through Koota Ooma.
Thank you, J.P. Antonacci for this wonderful story in the Hamilton Spectator, titled, “A writer’s promise to her young readers — to tell the truth.”
I’ve written two WWII trilogies. The first trilogy is Making Bombs for Hitler, Stolen Girl and The War Below.
What’s their order? You can read either Making Bombs or Stolen Girl first, but read The War Below last.
Here’s what the books looked like when they were originally published by Scholastic Canada:
The second trilogy should be read in this order: Don’t Tell the Nazis, Trapped in Hitler’s Web, and Traitors Among Us. While there is enough context in each of the novels so that they can be read as standalones, to get a true picture of Krystia and Maria’s experiences in WWII, reading them in the order that I wrote them is best.
Don’t Tell the Nazis was originally published in Canada in 2018 as Don’t Tell the Enemy. After that, Scholastic Books and Scholastic Canada published my books simultaneously, and with the same title.
Winterkill takes place before World War II, at a time in the 1930s when the dictator from Moscow implemented a plan to starve Ukrainians to death so he could replace them with people of Russian and Belarusian heritage. Millions of Ukrainians were killed. This genocide is called the Holodomor (holod = hunger; mor=death). This novel chillingly reflects what is happening in Ukraine now, with Putin trying to repeat history.
It was an honour to be invited to speak at KUMPF gallery, and it was so nice to catch up with old friends and to chat with many young readers. I loved presenting amidst Bohdan Holowacki’s vast talent — see those paintings on the wall? His artwork will be exhibited until Dec 23! Thanks to Uliana Hlynchak for organizing, and thanks to Sonia Bodnar for reading the same selection from «Викрадене дитя» as I read in the original English edition of Stolen Girl. Yulia Lyubka is a brilliant translator, as everyone in the audience witnessed. It was a particularly emotional reading, as my husband was in the audience and the scene was based on his late mother’s escape from the Nazis. Lidia would have loved to hear this, especially in Ukrainian. Here is a FB video from the event.
Uplifting and deceptively simple, this picture book shows all of the things each of us CAN do.
