Tag: Winterkill

Fave Qs from Boyd W. Arthurs Middle School (MI)

I had the pleasure of visiting Arthurs MS in person in 2019 and so it was really neat to catch up with them again, albeit virtually. Those kids are now in high school but it was great to see the same wonderful educators and another crop of avid readers, including Alex, who described himself as my biggest fan. Also, they used the same Welcome Marsha sign! How cool is that?

Here are my fave questions from this session:

In Winterkill, Auntie Pawlina’s songbook is destroyed by the shockworkers. In real life, what was the fate of her collected songs?

Why were you banned by Russia?

When you write a novel, do you use an outline?

Why does Russia hate Ukraine?

Favorite questions from Eleanor Van Gelder (NJ) students

I like to leave lots of room for questions when presenting to students and this morning’s questions were superb! The topic was Winterkill, set during the Holodomor. Plus, I always talk about my own struggles as a kid, for example not reading til I was 9, and being bullied. Here are some of my favorite questions of the day:

If the Holodomor was such a huge event, how was it possible to hide it?

How did you deal with the bullying, and were you able to get it to stop?

Did you ever regret writing your first book about the Holodomor (Enough), seeing as you were subjected to so much hate because of it?

enough

Talking about Winterkill and Putin’s war with avid readers from Southside Junior High

It was wonderful to speak with avid readers from Southside JH this morning. It was great to answer some very good questions and some of them were ones I had never been asked by students before. What I particularly enjoyed were the connections that students made between the Holodomor and the current war in Ukraine, and between Stalin and Putin. One student asked how an American kid could help people in Ukraine. I told them that if they wanted to raise money, the best place to donate is the US-Ukraine Foundation but also said that doing things that keep the reality of war in Ukraine in the minds of regular people was very important too. There’s a simple way to keep it in people’s minds and that’s to follow #KidsFleeWar on social media and to share the images. What is #KidsFleeWar? The Shevchenko Foundation, myself and educators from across Canada who have Ukrainian refugee kids in their schools have been facilitating and sharing artwork about the war from a child’s perspective. Following, commenting and sharing these images keeps the injustices of the war on the radar of regular people but it also gives a voice to kids. I also host those pics on my website here.

Southside students were introduced to Winterkill and the Holodomor many weeks ago by their librarian, Jenna Remedies-France. Many thanks to HREC ED for funding this visit. Here is a quote from Jenna: I read Winterkill a few weeks ago; I absolutely LOVED it! I have to be honest and say that I had never heard of the Holodomor before, much less knew anything substantial about it. I love history! I cannot believe that in all my schooling it was never brought up. Thank you for writing such a beautiful book about this tragic time in history. The story deserves to be told, read, and known by everyone. I will definitely do my part in making that happen! Jenna Remedies-France, Middle School Librarian, Southside Junior High, Denham Springs, Louisiana

Witnesses, Deniers and Bourgeois Troublemakers. The Holodomor and Ukrainian-Canadian Collaboration in Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch’s Winterkill (2022)

Thank you, Dr. Mateusz Świetlicki, for this thorough examination of Winterkill, particularly in terms of historical veracity and how the novel gives needed context to the Russian Federation’s current genocidal war against the Ukrainian nation and culture. This paper is a great resource for educators who are doing a novel study with Winterkill. Here’s the link.

Pic from Oct 13th HREC ED Webinar about Winterkill with Dr. Mateusz Świetlicki and Valentina Kuryliw

Cedar Hill ES, Lawrenceville, Georgia

Some really great questions about the Holodomor and Winterkill, particularly about individual characters in the book and what their lives looked like after the book was over. But my favorite question of the virtual session was, “What’s it like to be over 60 years old?” I told him that inside, I still feel 12 years old. Another student asked if I would ever work with an illustrator to make one of my books into a graphic novel and I said that was a great idea and would love to see it happen with Making Bombs for Hitler. I showed them Five Stalks of Grain by Adrian Lysenko and Ivanka Galadza and suggested they would like it. I also showed them Sylvia McNicholl’s What the Dog Knows when asked about my current fave book. Thank you, HREC ED, for funding this presentation.

Loved speaking with 190 5th grade students at Cedar Hill this morning.

A four school virtual day

Such a pleasure to meet with 4 schools today! First up was Delran Middle School in NJ. Students had just finished reading Making Bombs for Hitler and we had such good discussions about the real people and history behind that novel, that trilogy and also about Winterkill.

I also met with students from Souris School in Manitoba, East Selkirk MS, and Hollyburn School in West Vancouver.

Here are some Hollyburn pics:

This is a pic from East Selkirk

Boo! East Selkirk as well!