{"id":2411,"date":"2025-02-14T17:03:17","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T17:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.scholastic.ca\/scholasticblog\/?p=2411"},"modified":"2025-02-14T17:03:18","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T17:03:18","slug":"interview-with-the-author-of-kidnapped-from-ukraine-under-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.scholastic.ca\/scholasticblog\/2025\/02\/14\/interview-with-the-author-of-kidnapped-from-ukraine-under-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with the Author of \u2018Kidnapped From Ukraine: Under Attack\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:4px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com\/docsz\/AD_4nXfqLCI60L80LJdIjqLGVd5NioItvRwcIS3oCX8ZebPTnFb5YuqgKDObywnLVyrKqs8rD8H5otUsVkrG8nNTydFok_hjbIzqgnPOSBzx3aLI7tFy-p2ktwM4Mqq3tkFsitAOsUvqFw?key=2muGylyyu_ixVwKgTnr-zBui\" alt=\"\" style=\"width:313px;height:auto\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:4px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What inspired you to write your book?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch: <\/strong>Under Attack was inspired by Russia\u2019s 86-day siege of Mariupol, Ukraine in 2022, and their massive kidnapping campaign of Ukrainian kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The book starts on the first day of Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine and it follows the fate of Dariia and her mother as they are separated from the rest of their family. They barely survive, day by day, hour by hour, as missiles rain down. The two are ultimately captured and separated and Dariia is sent to a brainwashing camp in Russia and placed with a Russian family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This current event that is still unfolding resonates deeply with me, because I had already written a book about it: Stolen Girl, set during the Nazi Lebensborn program in WWII. Putin obviously gains inspiration from Hitler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:2px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What did you enjoy most about writing?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch: <\/strong>I love shedding light on quiet heroes. As I was doing the research for this book, I was in awe of the brave and creative audacity of individual Ukrainians fighting and sabotaging in each small way that they could against the behemoth that is Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:2px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What were some challenges that you faced while writing?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch: <\/strong>This was an emotionally devastating book to write. I am of Ukrainian heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When writing about a war that\u2019s still going on, one must honour those who are living through it but not betray their privacy. For this reason, the characters are inspired by real people, but for the events, I didn\u2019t use anything that was shared in confidence. Instead, I used documented testimony, interviews, and accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:2px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What do you hope your readers will take away from your book?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch: <\/strong>I want my readers to step into Dariia\u2019s shoes and feel what it\u2019s like to have war come to your home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:2px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How do you come up with the names for your characters?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch: <\/strong>This novel is set in Mariupol, Ukraine in 2022. In that time and place, there are given names and surnames that are in common use. The names that I use in this book are all derived from real names of people living there in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:2px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What books have had the biggest impact on your life?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch: <\/strong>I am dyslexic and taught myself how to read when I was nine years old and in grade four for the second time. I chose Charles Dickens\u2019 <em>Oliver Twist<\/em> as the book I would marathon through until I could read. That book changed my life. Up until that time, I knew how to cheat at reading \u2013 guess, memorize, look at pictures \u2013 but <em>Oliver Twist<\/em> required that I actually sound out letters inside of each word and say it out loud to figure out the word. It took me a whole year to read it, but as I became a better reader, the story began to play like a movie in my head. None of the remedial readers that teachers had tormented me with up to that time ever put movies in my head. After reading <em>Oliver Twist<\/em>, I knew that I wanted to write novels that put movies in people\u2019s heads. And I wanted to write on similar themes like what Charles Dickens did \u2013 and if you\u2019ve read my books, you know that I do. But I also decided that I\u2019d leave out the words that people skip over. Dickens was paid by the word, and so he used too many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:2px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What books were your favourite to read growing up?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch: <\/strong>Because I came to reading in an unusual way, I didn\u2019t select books in a usual way. After reading <em>Oliver Twist<\/em>, I decided to read all the big fat books in the children\u2019s novel section in alphabetical order by author\u2019s last name. That meant I read all of Louisa May Alcott, Walter Brooks\u2019 <em>Freddie the Pig<\/em> series, <em>Diary of Anne Frank <\/em>\u2013 because it was mis-shelved with the As, and <em>Black Beauty<\/em> because it was mis-shelved as a B-authored book. I didn\u2019t get to the end of the alphabet by the time I reached high school and figured out better ways of selecting reading material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:2px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What\u2019s your writing process look like?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch: <\/strong>I do considerable research before I start writing, and then kamikaze research during. My standard routine is to write for three hours a day and that three hours would consist of reading and revising what I\u2019d written the day before, and then plunging forward on new scenes. Beginning a novel is always the hardest and I can rewrite the first 25% of a novel over and over again before finally getting it to gel and then I\u2019m off galloping. Once I get to THE END for the first time, revision starts. The first draft usually takes about six months and the edits can take a similar length of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:2px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What\u2019s next for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch: <\/strong>I\u2019m working on a story about a real girl in the medieval times who\u2019s captured as a slave and becomes a queen. It may or may not end up being a trilogy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:2px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bookclubs.scholastic.ca\/en\/-kidnapped-from-ukraine-%231%3A-under-attack-\/48491748-cec-ca.html\"><strong>Get your copy of <em>Kidnapped From Ukraine: Under Attack<\/em> at Scholastic Book Clubs today!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What inspired you to write your book? Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch: Under Attack was inspired by Russia\u2019s 86-day siege of Mariupol, Ukraine in 2022, and their massive kidnapping campaign of Ukrainian&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2412,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[40,5,6,14,53],"class_list":["post-2411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hot-topics","tag-author-interview","tag-book-clubs","tag-book-fairs","tag-books","tag-february"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Interview with the Author of \u2018Kidnapped From Ukraine: Under Attack\u2019 | Scholastic at School Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www2.scholastic.ca\/scholasticblog\/2025\/02\/14\/interview-with-the-author-of-kidnapped-from-ukraine-under-attack\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Interview with the Author of \u2018Kidnapped From Ukraine: Under Attack\u2019 | Scholastic at School Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What inspired you to write your book? 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