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To book
this author, or to be added to our
announce only listserv, please email your request to Marsha Skrypuch or
Valerie Sherrard at: abs@authorsbooking.com
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Marsha
Skrypuch
Silver Birch Express Nominee 2010
Golden
Oak Nominee 2010
Authors’ Booking Service is pleased to announce that children’s author,
Marsha Skrypuch, is now scheduling
visits to Ontario schools for the coming school year.
This
author sets aside each Wednesday of the school year for presentations
and writing workshops. She 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 Wednesday.
Marsha would love to plan a visit
to your school or library during this time. Her rate is $300 plus GST
for one session, $575 for two, $825 for three and $1000
for four, plus travel from Brantford.
Marsha's YA novel, Daughter of War,
is nominated for the 2009 White Pine Award. It has also been nominated
for the YALSA BBYA 2009 and has been named an Outstanding International
Book 2009 by USBBY.
Here’s here's what teacher-librarian Janet Keilhack of Keswick ON wrote
after Marsha a full day visit at her school:
I
had to email and tell you the great reviews I got from students and
teachers after you left on Fri. Especially the Intermediate teachers
and students.... You and Eric Walters were 2 I would consider the best
we have had.
REALLY super-duper enjoyed
your visit!
Here's
what Lynda Verwer of St Marys ON had to say:
Thank
you so much for your visit. The kids are still all abuzz! We were all
so impressed with your presentation and the fact that you shared with
us the difficulties you had as a child. It is so important for children
to realize that adversity can be overcome and that there is always
hope. I am going shopping on the weekend. The kids have given me a list
of books they absolutely HAVE TO HAVE!
Again, Marsha, our heartfelt thanks.
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.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
PUBLISHED WORKS: MARSHA SKRYPUCH
Stolen Child,
Scholastic, 2010
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)
RECENT AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS
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) -- Enough and the story "The
Rings" in Kobzar's Children.
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 Influence,
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
Presentation Details:
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:
A Passion for Books:
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.
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.
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 45 or fewer works best but I will present to larger groups.
Is
this flexible? Sometimes a school wishes to accommodate all of their
students. This is especially true for northern and remote schools. In
these situations, I will be flexible.
Workshops available? If yes, for
which grades: grades 3 to university
Maximum participants for workshop:
16*
*please note -- Marsha recently
developed a modified writing workshop that can be used with as many as
60 students at once, 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
List
any equipment or other requirements you have: a bottle of water,
lunch
if I'm staying over the lunchtime, and a map of the world when
presenting to students K to 5 if possible.
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