January 18th, 2013
“A simple but powerful story on the value of a gift. I read this book with my son and we had a wonderful discussion on the lives of other children in distant lands and the value we place on material objects. I could see it made him reflect deeply. …With few words and illustrations that […]
Posted in A Good Trade
January 11th, 2013
“…Nix’s story is one of transformation. Nix is an introvert. He finds relationships difficult, and is more at home expressing himself through the things he makes. A connection he does form his to his neighbour’s neglected (and possibly abused) dog, whom he arranges to start walking every day. With Twig, Nix can do what he […]
Posted in Nix Minus One
January 4th, 2013
Novels written in verse are difficult to execute well. On one hand they have a tendency toward melodrama; on the other they showcase poetry’s inherent ability to communicate flashes of thought, emotion, and experience. For YA novels in which the protagonists are often dealing with difficult situations, balance comes from allowing the characters to emerge […]
Posted in Nix Minus One
January 4th, 2013
As educators, we often tell our young students to look at the pictures when we read. The pictures reveal clues that will help us read the story and to better understand it. The images and text of A Good Trade complement one another to the point of poetic consistency. The text and the images are […]
Posted in A Good Trade
January 2nd, 2013
Pajama Press is pleased to announce that Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan’s Rescue from War by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is a finalist for the 2012 Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards (CYBILS) in the category of Non-fiction: Middle Grade and Young Adult. CYBILS nominations are collected from members of the public each year for […]
Posted in Last Airlift
November 20th, 2012
The author uses clear prose and descriptive language to make the reader aware of the life that Kato lives. We hear the silence of the early morning, see the soldiers as they stand guard, feel the sloshing of the water on Kato’s bare, dusty toes, catch our breath with him as he hauls the water home […]
Posted in A Good Trade
November 9th, 2012
One Step at a Time is an easy-to-read book about Tuyet, a Vietnamese girl adopted by a Canadian family. It is the sequel to Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan’s Rescue from War and picks up where that book leaves off. Tuyet suffers great pain from having a weak ankle. Just weeks after her adoption, her […]
Posted in One Step at a Time
November 8th, 2012
This colourful picture book lives its message: one of the best antidotes for sadness is laughter. The illustrations by author/illustrator Rebecca Bender delight the reader even before the humorous and effective twist at the end of the story. A successful element in the interaction of text and image is that Bender bolds the important words—mainly […]
Posted in Don't Laugh at Giraffe
October 22nd, 2012
“Marsha Skrypuch has written two short books for young readers that tell the story of eight year old Son Thi Anh Tuyet, a Vietnamese orphan who was adopted by a family from Brantford, Ontario. Living in an orphanage in Saigon, in 1975, Tuyet had been crippled by polio when younger and was suffering from psychological […]
Posted in Last Airlift, One Step at a Time
October 4th, 2012
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Posted in A Bear in War, A Good Trade, Acts of Courage, Don't Laugh at Giraffe, Emily for Real, Last Airlift, Lumpito and the Painter from Spain, No Shelter Here, One Step at a Time, True Blue
