In 2008, Marsha was awarded the Order of Princess Olha by the Ukrainian President, in recognition of her story, Enough, which described the great Ukrainian famine that claimed millions of lives in the 1930s. Marsha’s novel, Stolen Child, received the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for the Americas, and is a starred selection in Best Books for Kids and Teens from the Canadian Children’s Book Centre.
Surprisingly, up until the fourth grade, Marsha did not know how to read! She’s said that after failing a provincial test, she taught herself how to read with Oliver Twist — a long novel that took her a year to complete. Marsha continued to read as many books as she could get her hands on, and had a new dream of becoming an author. After completing an English and Library Science degree, backpacking across Europe and working for an industrial sales company, Marsha eventually focused on writing. After a hundred rejections, her first book was published in 1996.
Marsha is the co-founder of Authors’ Booking Service, which helps Canadian schools and organizations plan visits from authors and illustrators. She and her family live in Brantford, Ontario.
Copyright
While the events described and some of the characters in this book may be based on actual historical events and real people, Anya Soloniuk is a fictional character created by the author, and this story is a work of fiction.
“An Unexpected Visitor” copyright © 2009 by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch.
Interior illustration by Susan Gardos, copyright © 2009 by Scholastic Canada Ltd.
Originally published in Dear Canada, A Christmas to Remember: Tales of Comfort and Joy.
Cover image: © iStockphoto.com/nico_blue
Published by Scholastic Canada Ltd.
SCHOLASTIC and DEAR CANADA and logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
All rights reserved under International and Pan–American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read this e-book on-screen. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher, Scholastic Canada Ltd., 604 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5V 1E1, Canada.
ISBN: 978-1-4431-2418-8
First eBook edition: December 2012
Also Available
To read more great Christmas stories and meet other Dear Canada heroines check out A Christmas to Remember: Tales of Comfort and Joy and A Season for Miracles: Twelve Tales of Christmas.
If you liked Anya Soloniuk’s Christmas story, look for her diary, Prisoners in the Promised Land, to read more about her.
Books in the Dear Canada Series
Alone in an Untamed Land, The Filles du Roi Diary of Hélène St. Onge by Maxine Trottier
Banished from Our Home, The Acadian Diary of Angélique Richard by Sharon Stewart
Blood Upon Our Land, The North West Resistance Diary of Josephine Bouvier by Maxine Trottier
Brothers Far from Home, The World War I Diary of Eliza Bates by Jean Little
A Christmas to Remember, Tales of Comfort and Joy
Days of Toil and Tears, The Child Labour Diary of Flora Rutherford by Sarah Ellis
The Death of My Country, The Plains of Abraham Diary of Geneviève Aubuchon by Maxine Trottier
A Desperate Road to Freedom, The Underground Railroad Diary of Julia May Jackson by Karleen Bradford
Exiles from the War, The War Guests Diary of Charlotte Mary Twiss by Jean Little
Footsteps in the Snow, The Red River Diary of Isobel Scott by Carol Matas
Hoping for Home, Stories of Arrival
If I Die Before I Wake, The Flu Epidemic Diary of Fiona Macgregor by Jean Little
No Safe Harbour, The Halifax Explosion Diary of Charlotte Blackburn by Julie Lawson
Not a Nickel to Spare, The Great Depression Diary of Sally Cohen by Perry Nodelman
An Ocean Apart, The Gold Mountain Diary of Chin Mei-ling by Gillian Chan
Orphan at My Door, The Home Child Diary of Victoria Cope by Jean Little
A Prairie as Wide as the Sea, The Immigrant Diary of Ivy Weatherall by Sarah Ellis
Prisoners in the Promised Land, The Ukrainian Internment Diary of Anya Soloniuk by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
A Rebel’s Daughter, The 1837 Rebellion Diary of Arabella Stevenson by Janet Lunn
A Ribbon of Shining Steel, The Railway Diary of Kate Cameron by Julie Lawson
A Sea of Sorrows, The Typhus Epidemic Diary of Johanna Leary by Norah McClintock
A Season for Miracles, Twelve Tales of Christmas
That Fatal Night, The Titanic Diary of Dorothy Wilton by Sarah Ellis
To Stand On My Own, The Polio Epidemic Diary of Noreen Robertson by Barbara Haworth-Attard
Torn Apart, The Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi by Susan Aihoshi
A Trail of Broken Dreams, The Gold Rush Diary of Harriet Palmer by Barbara Haworth-Attard
Turned Away, The World War II Diary of Devorah Bernstein by Carol Matas
Where the River Takes Me, The Hudson’s Bay Company Diary of Jenna Sinclair by Julie Lawson
Whispers of War, The War of 1812 Diary of Susanna Merritt by Kit Pearson
Winter of Peril, The Newfoundland Diary of Sophie Loveridge by Jan Andrews
With Nothing But Our Courage, The Loyalist Diary of Mary MacDonald by Karleen Bradford
Go to www.scholastic.ca/dearcanada for information on the Dear Canada Series — see inside the books, read an excerpt or a review, post a review, and more.