Our Presenters Forest of Reading® Contact ABS Back Subscribe to our newsletter: Email:

Marsha Skrypuch

This author can do up to four presentations in the same school or area in a day. As the author of picture books, middle grade novels and YA novels, she routinely presents to an entire school over the course of a school day.

Marsha would love to plan a visit to your school or library during this time. Her rate is $300 plus HST for one session, $575 for two, $825 for three and $1000 for four, plus travel from Brantford.

Here's what Rachelle Gooden, Senior Services Specialist, Adult Literacy Program at the Maria A. Shchuka District Library had to say about this author:

On June 8th we were fortunate to have two visits from Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch.  Marsha is an excellent speaker who immediately sets adult learners at ease.  The audience was engaged in both locations.  Students asked questions and were comfortable enough to be vulnerable.  Call Me Aram is a great book and many of the adult learners had not only read it but also Aram's Choice.  Marsha took the time to answer all the audience's questions and provided concrete ways in which the learners could write their own books.  Informative and entertaining we were very pleased to have Marsha speak at our library.

Marsha is a member of The Writers' Union of Canada, and so schools wishing to invite her may be eligible for a travel and fee subsidy to off-set the cost of her visit. For details of this program, please contact us.


Something you may not know about Marsha:

She is a Canadian Inventor.

Making Bombs for Hitler, Scholastic, 2012
Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan's Rescue from War, Pajama Press, 2011
Stolen Child, Scholastic, 2010
"An Unexpected Visiter" in A Christmas To Remember, Scholastic, 2009.
Call Me Aram, Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2009
Prisonniers de la grande forêt, Scholastic Dear Canada, 2008
Daughter of War, Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2008 (young adult novel)
Prisoners in the Promised Land: The Ukrainian Internment Diary of Anya Soloniuk, Spirit Lake 1914. Scholastic, 2007
Kobzar's Children: A Century of Untold Ukrainian Stories, Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2006 (young adult anthology)
Aram's Choice, illustrated by Muriel Wood, Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2006 (middle grade novel)
Silver Threads, illustrated by Michael Martchenko, Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2004
Nobody's Child, Dundurn, 2003 (young adult novel)
Hope's War, Dundurn, 2001 (young adult novel)
Enough, Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2000 (picture book)
The Hunger, Dundurn, 1999 (young adult novel)
The Best Gifts, Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1998, (picture book)
Silver Threads, Penguin, 1996, (picture book)

Last Airlift: Children's Literature Roundtables Information Book Award 2012 nomination
Last Airlift: OLA Best Bets, top ten non-fiction for children, 2011
Stolen Child: Starred selection, CCBC Our Choice
Stolen Child: 2012 Saskatchewan Diamond Willow nomination
Stolen Child: 2011 Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Honour Book
Stolen Child: Winner of the 2011 SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for the Americas
Stolen Child: Canadian Library Association 2011 Children's Book of the Year nomination
Stolen Child: Resource Links Best Book, 2010
Stolen Child: OLA Best Bets, top ten juvenile fiction list in 2010
CANSCAIP silver pin for volunteerism, 2010
Stolen Child: Golden Oak nomination, 2011
Calliope Award for mentorship and excellence in writing, Humber School for Writers, 2010
Named Canadian Ukrainian Woman of Distinction, World Congress of Ukrainian Women's Organizations, 2010.
Marsha has been included in the HERSTORY 2010 Calendar, which profiles and celebrates a selection of outstanding Canadian women each year
Call Me Aram: Golden Oak nomination, 2010
Call Me Aram: Silver Birch Express nomination, 2010
Daughter of War: USBBY Outstanding International Book, 2009
Daughter of War: White Pine nominee, 2009
Daughter of War: YALSA BBYA shortlist, 2009
Daughter of War: Christian High School Book Club selection, 2009
Daughter of War: Resource Links, Best Book 2008
Daughter of War: OLA Best Bets, honourable mention
Awarded the Order of Princess Olha, from President Victor Yushchenko, Ukraine, for her works on the Holodomor (Ukrainian Famine) (
Prisoners in the Promised Land: OLA Best Bets, honourable mention
Prisoners in the Promised Land: Resource Links, Best Book 2007
Aram's Choice: Golden Oak nominee, 2008
Aram's Choice: CLA Children's Book of the Year, shortlist 2007
Aram's Choice: Resource Links, Best Book 2006
Aram's Choice: Silver Birch Express nominee, 2007
Named Canadian Ukrainian Woman of Distinction, World Congress of Ukrainian Women's Organizations, 2006.
Nobody's Child: nominated for:
BC Stellar Award
Ontario Red Maple Award
Alberta Rocky Mountain Book Award
Named a ResourceLinks Best Novel 2004
Hope's War: nominated for:
Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award
Saskatchewan Snow Willow Award
Alberta Rocky Mountain Book Award
Enough: a ResourceLinks Best Picture Book, 2001
Silver Threads: OLA Best Bets 1996, shortlisted for the Amelia Frances/Howard Gibbon Award for illustration
The Best Gifts: La Leche League International selected book

Marsha consistently receives CCBC's Our Choice designation for her books

Marsha can do presentations on a single aspect outlined below, or she can tailor to your school's needs, combining several themes in a single presentation:

What I learned when I failed grade 4:

One of Marsha's most popular presentations is about her own literacy struggles.

Marsha tricked her teachers into thinking she knew how to read until it all caught up with her in grade 4 when she failed the provincial reading exam. Adding insult to injury, they made her repeat the whole year. As the tallest and oldest kid in the class, she didn't want to be seen learning to read with little skinny books and she was too proud to ask for help, so she taught herself how to read by taking out the fattest book in the children's section of the Brantford Public Library -- Oliver Twist. She kept on renewing it for a whole year. Reading that book was a turning point in her life. She decided that she loved reading big fat fiction, and wanted to write it too.

Marsha's story resonates with students, especially those who are struggling academically or who feel "different".

A picture book from start to finish:

Marsha reads portions of her rough drafts and shows students how many changes she had to make in Silver Threads and Enough. She also shows them early artwork and lets them compare it with the published artwork. She enjoys regaling the kids with stories of mistakes.

Writing Workshop:

Self-editing techniques that students have fun doing. Building characters from the inside out. How to create a great villain. Techniques for plunging a story into action

YOUR writing!
In a lively question and answer session, Marsha listens to students' writing problems and suggests ways to resolve them.

Keynotes:

Marsha loves giving keynote addresses! She recently gave 8 keynote addresses over two days at the Literacy For Life conference in Saskatoon. Each session had 500 students! Marsha has given keynotes at high schools, writing conferences, and teaching conferences as well. Her largest audience for a single keynote was 1200 -- that was for the Calgary Young Writers' Conference in 2009.

Presentations on specific books and themes:

Marsha's books gently deal with such universal issues as multiculturalism, immigration, discrimination and genocide. She likes to plunge her readers into difficult times so they can consider how they would have reacted under similar circumstances.

Stolen Child
Marsha's late mother-in-law lost half of her classmates to the Nazi Lebensborn program in WWII. Marsha talks about the true story that inspired this historical middle-grade thriller.

Daughter of War
Marsha talks about the real history behind the novel: the Armenians who were killed in Turkey as part of the official policy of "Turkey for the Turks" but also about the heroic Muslims who risked their own lives to save Armenians. She talks about the ten years of research and her many drafts, and how she ended up writing the final draft in a single mad month.

Prisoners in the Promised Land
Marsha's own grandfather was interned during WWI in Canada as an "enemy alien". Her 2007 Dear Canada diary novel is about a young girl who was interned in the wilds of northern Quebec during the first World War. With interactive questions and answers, Marsha discusses how she found out about what happened to her own grandfather and why it spurred her to write this book. She also talks about how she did her research.


"Who remembers the Armenians now?" (Hitler, 1941)
Marsha talks about the real people and the history behind her Armenian genocide novels, Nobody's Child, The Hunger, and Aram's Choice, Daughter of War, and Call Me Aram.

Kobzar's Children: A Century of Untold Ukrainian Stories
Marsha reveals the background, research, and real people behind her Ukrainian books.

Enough
Marsha does a storytelling session with her folk tale picture book, Enough about one girl and her father and how they saved one village from the Ukrainian Famine (Holodomor). For K to 3, this is primarily a straight storytelling with questions and answers at the end. With older students, Marsha delves into the concept of fiction vs non-fiction, what is truth, and the chilling consequences of telling the truth.

Aram's Choice
A story in a box. What would you take with you if you were leaving everything familiar behind to travel to a new country? An interactive question and answer storytelling session about Aram and his decision to come to Canada.

Grades I will present to:  K to university

Maximum number of students per session:  For younger grades, 45. For older grades, 100+.

Is this flexible? Yes.

Workshops available? If yes, for which grades:  grades 3 to university

Maximum participants for workshop: 16*

*please note -- Marsha has developed a modified writing workshop that can be used with as many as 60 students, but teacher assistance is essential.

Do you offer...

Professional Development Workshops? Yes -- teaching history through fiction/teaching teachers how to teach creative writing/many other topics on demand

Grade 12 Writers' Craft Workshops? Absolutely! I love doing Writers' Craft Workshops.

Venues I am comfortable in:  (classroom, library, auditorium, gymnasium)  -- all but prefer library

Is this flexible?  yes