Prisoners in the Promised Land: The Ukrainian Internment Diary of Anya Soloniuk
by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch 
Dear Canada (1914)
On This Page
Description
The heart-wrenching story of one girl's experience at a Ukrainian internment camp in Quebec during World War IAnya's family emigrates from the Ukraine hoping for a fresh start and a new life in Canada. Soon after they cram into a tiny apartment in Montreal, WWI is declared. Because their district was annexed by Austria — now at war with the Commonwealth — many Ukrainians in Canada are declared "enemy aliens" and sent to internment camps. Anya and her family are shipped off to the Spirit show more Lake Camp, in the remote wilderness of Quebec. Though conditions are brutal, at least Anya is at a camp that houses entire families together, and even in this barbed-wire world, she is able to make new friends and bring some happiness to the people around her.Author Marsha Skrypuch, whose own grandfather was interned during WWI at a camp in Alberta, travelled to Spirit Lake during her research for the book. "When we got to the cemetery, I was overwhelmed with emotion. Imagine seeing a series of crosses, all grown over with brush and abandoned, and knowing that the real person you based a character on had a little sister buried there? That real little girl was Mary Manko. She was only six years old when she and her family were taken from their Montreal home and sent to Spirit Lake Internment Camp. Her two-year-old sister Carolka died at the camp. Mary Manko is in her nineties now and is the last known survivor of the Ukrainian internment operations." explains Skrypuch. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
This entire series is a wonderful way to learn history or teach it to adolescents. I find today's generations seem to recall more when they learn through other people (pop songs, celebrity gossip, etc.), so what better way to teach history than through someone else's perspective? Yes, "authentic" diaries would be "better", but would the language really hold the modern student's attention? Did the diary writer know what WOULD be important in the context of history? Probably not.
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Learning history through first-person, young adult, historical fiction one
188 works; 4 members
Author Information
35 Works 3,548 Members
Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing.
Awards and Honors
Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Prisoners in the Promised Land: The Ukrainian Internment Diary of Anya Soloniuk
- Important places
- Ukraine; Canada
- Important events
- World War I
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, Children's Books, Kids
- DDC/MDS
- 813.54 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American fiction in English 1900-1999 1945-1999
- LCC
- PZ7 .S6233 .P — Language and Literature Fiction and juvenile belles lettres Fiction and juvenile belles lettres Juvenile belles lettres
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 122
- Popularity
- 267,097
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.33)
- Languages
- English, French
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 2
