BOOK REVIEW: Childen's author releases new book on Great Famine of 1932-1933 (05/20/01)

BOOK REVIEW

Childen's author releases new book on Great Famine of 1932-1933

"Enough," by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, illustrated by Michael Martchenko. Canada: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, ISBN 1550415093, cloth, 32 pages, $19.95 (Canadian); "Dosyt," Edmonton: Ukrainian Language Education Center, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. ISBN 1895380294, $19.95 [Both editions published in Canada in December 2000; the English edition was released in the United States in March 2001.]

by Dr. Luboymyr Luciuk

I do not normally read, or even glance, at what's to be found in the children's book section of any bookstore that I patronize. Probably most of you don't either. Why bother? There's far too much in the other areas that I linger over - politics, history, geography, travel - to capture my eye and imagination for me to spend any time thinking about what kids might be reading. And I say that even if I am the proud father of a 10-year-old, a little girl who certainly loves to read, and for whom I love to buy books that she or others tell me she would like.

I should know better, of course, for, especially in recent years, books have started appearing in English and Ukrainian that have a lot to offer not only my daughter but anyone in North America of Ukrainian heritage. And the credit for that has everything to do with the remarkable creativity and productivity, of Canadian Ukrainian author Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch. Just a few years ago she crafted "Silver Threads," a wonderful tale about pioneer settlers in western Canada and their struggle to overcome not only the hardships of homesteading but the injustice of the internment operations of the first world war, when Ukrainians and other Europeans were needlessly imprisoned as "enemy aliens." My daughter and, in fact, her grandmother both loved that story. So did I.

Now, Ms. Skrypuch has come out with an even more compelling story, at least in my humble opinion (although I admit to already having had debates over this very point with supporters of "Silver Threads"). Her most recent book, available in English and in Ukrainian, is simply titled "Enough." It describes how a young girl, a heroine, rescues her village from starvation and the predations of the great Dictator who has tried to extort all of their food. The child's faith and goodness triumph in the face of Evil. While this may not be historically accurate, for few villages in Soviet Ukraine were spared the genocidal fury of Stalinism during the politically engineered Great Famine of 1932-1933, what better way to introduce our children and grandchildren, and those of our neighbors, to the unparalleled catastrophe that befell Ukrainians in the 20th century than by means of this subtle yet evocative folk tale?

That it is available in both English and Ukrainian, allowing for anyone in our community, from recent arrival to fourth-generation Ukrainian Canadian or Ukrainian American, to read and learn and remember, is all the more exciting. Few will walk away from reading this story, or from pondering the book's marvelous illustrations by Michael Martchenko, without a shudder or a sigh. This book makes it very easy for anyone to appreciate why Ukrainians in the emigration, or in Ukraine, must never forget what befell them or their ancestors, and who was responsible.

I have been fortunate in my life to have met many Ukrainians who fought for Ukraine's independence, who struggled to survive under Nazi and Soviet tyranny, who endured this terrible man-made famine, who never gave up hope even when all around them everything they believed in looked to be lost. I have, in my own scholarly works and writings, tried to capture and pass along some of the insights and memories that I have heard for posterity. While what small body of work that I have completed is considered important by some, I publicly bow my head to Ms. Skrypuch for reminding me, and I hope all of us, that the future lies with our children and grandchildren and those of today's Ukraine. They are the ones who must not only inherit the memories of what Ukraine's freedom cost but remember those truths and pass them along to their own children. I can think of no better way of reaching them now than through the children's books that Ms. Skrypuch has laid before us.

"Enough" is a book that needs to be bought and read to our children by every Ukrainian parent, then read again out loud by every grandparent, and not only in North America but throughout our diaspora and, perhaps even more importantly, in Ukraine. If you can I urge you to buy not just one copy of this book, but two. Send the second copy to a family, friends or a library in Ukraine. I did that just this week, for in Ukraine they are even more in need of remembering what once happened and of reading a story that will shore up their will to act today to ensure that such tragedies never befall them again.

Prof. Lubomyr Luciuk teaches at The Royal Military College of Canada and is author of the recently published book, "Searching For Place: Ukrainian Displaced Persons, Canada, and the Migration of Memory" (University of Toronto Press, 2000), which has just been reprinted.

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