Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is the acclaimed author of 20+ books for young people including her popular WWII Making Bombs for Hitler novel trilogy and her non-fiction like Adrift at Sea: A Vietnamese Boy's Story of Survival.
Marsha is dyslexic and didn't learn to read until she was 9. The first book that she read and understood was Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens and reading that book over the course of a year when she was in grade 4 for the second time was a life-transforming experience. It taught her that reading wasn't just a subject in school, but an immersive pleasure. By grade 8 she had read all of the big fat novels in the children's department of the Brantford Public Library whose authors' last names started with either A, B, C or D. By grade 9 she had figured out better ways to choose books.
Marsha now considers dyslexia to be a gift that helps her write the kinds of books that she does -- about people plunged in war whose stories haven't been told before and from perspectives rarely seen in children's literature. Marsha has deep respect for the intelligence and compassion of her young readers and she writes the books she wishes she could have found to read when she was a kid.
Marsha loves speaking with students of all ages, especially those who are struggling academically or who feel "different".
