A companion to the award-winning books Stolen Child and Making Bombs for Hitler.
Fourteen-year-old Luka works as an Ostarbeiter in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, alongside Lida from Making Bombs for Hitler. Desperate to escape the brutal conditions of the labour camp, he manages to get away by hiding in a truck under a pile of dead bodies.
Once free, Luka joins a group of Ukrainian resistance fighters. Caught between advancing Nazis in the west and Soviet troops in the east, they mount guerilla raids, help POW escapees, and do all they can to make life hard for the Nazis and Soviets. After the war, Luka must decide whether to follow Lida to Canada — or stay in Europe and search for his long-lost mother.
Underground Soldier is a companion book to Stolen Child and Making Bombs for Hitler, and a perfect entry point into the series for new readers, as the books can be read in any order.
Here’s an audio interview with Marsha about Underground Soldier from TeachingBooks.net.
Praise for Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch:
“Skrypuch succeeds in making some of the more horrific and lesser-known events of the Second World War accessible and engaging for younger readers.” —Quill & Quire (for Stolen Child)
“An achingly sad and intensely hopeful novel — honest about suffering, but also about resilience. It is gripping in its plot and its striking characters, and full of historical accuracy.” —Canadian Children’s Book News (for Making Bombs for Hitler)
About the Author
MARSHA FORCHUK SKRYPUCH is well-known for her award-winning historical fiction and non-fiction. Her novel Stolen Child was a CLA Book of the Year nominee and won the prestigious SCBWI Crystal Kite Award. The companion book, Making Bombs for Hitler, was an OLA Silver Birch Award Winner. Marsha lives in Brantford, Ontario.
