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Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch's award-winning books for young people include Last Airlift, a Red Cedar Information Book Award winner and OLA Red Maple Honour Book. Its sequel, One Step at a Time, won the OLA Silver Birch Non-Fiction Award. Her YA novel Dance of the Banished is a Junior Library Guild Selection for 2015. In 2008, in recognition of her outstanding achievement in the development Ukraine's culture, Marsha was awarded the Order of Princess Olha. She lives in Brantford, Ontario. Tuan Ho escaped Vietnam at age six in 1981 among thousands of other boat people refugees. Through author Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, he has told the story of how he, his mother, and two sisters survived five days adrift on the ocean with dwindling fresh water before being rescued by a U.S. aircraft carrier. Joining the rest of his family in Canada, he went on to attend school in Toronto and is now an accomplished physiotherapist. Tuan and his wife Edae have two young daughters, Madeline and Emily. Brian Deines is a fine artist and the award-winning illustrator of over 20 children's books, including A Bear in War, Bear on the Homefront, The Road to Afghanistan, and On a Snowy Night. Dragonfly Kites, part of a trilogy written by Tomson Highway, was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for illustration and the Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award. A graduate of the Alberta College of Art, Brian lives in Toronto, Ontario with his wife and daughter.
...detailed authors' notes include history, photographs, and maps. The warm undertones in Deines' oil paintings evoke tropical Vietnam. Kirkus Reviews Skrypuch uses one child's story to give moving insight into the experience of the many children who escaped war-ravaged Vietnam to start new lives...Deines's hazy oil paintings poignantly capture the family's physical ordeal and anguish during their perilous journey. Publisher's Weekly From the illustration of a lone boat adrift in a wash of dry heat that graces the cover of Adrift at Sea, to the dark and engrossing images of Tuan's steps along the journey, Brian Deines' art is evocative and integrative, resplendent in complementary colours of orange and golds and blues and purples. CanLit for LittleCanadians The text is terse and unembellished, leaving the images to capture the emotions through color and perspective-and they do so with compelling immediacy. Booklist [A] remarkable tale of perseverance that involved attacks from soldiers, a broken boat at sea, and a trip that was intended to last four days but went horribly awry...This is a solid informational resource that can be used for introducing a refugee's experience. School Library Journal My 12 year-old son read this story too and felt saddened by Tuan['s] harrowing escape...The illustrations are simply beautiful and the style perfect for this dramatic story...I highly recommend this book as a teaching tool and feel that it should be in every library. Library of Clean Reads, Laura Fabiani and Son I loved the before and after pictures as well as the brief historical overview of events relating to the war in Vietnam...The soft-focus artwork done by Brian Deines that illustrates each page is amazing...The author has produced a very readable book that both parents and children should read together. I highly recommend this beautiful book. Library of Clean Reads, Sandra Olshaski The evocative text and powerful illustrations, painted with oils, enable readers to feel as though they, too, are refugees adrift at sea during this risky journey to freedom.. Literacy Daily The authors include personal photographs of Tuan's family, before their escape and following their settling in Canada, to help readers understand this historical moment in time...Brian Deines (as he always does) has created truly beautiful artwork using oils on canvas to bring Tuan's story to this book's readers. Sal's Fiction Addiction The illustrations in this book, full color paintings, are absolutely stunning...Brian Deines, has outdone himself in two-page spreads that bring this refugee story to life...[A] good introduction to the subject of the Vietnamese boat people... Semicolon ...Tuan's dramatic story of survival comes alive in Skrypuch's capable hands. The heart-pounding action alone is enough to captivate readers, but Skrypuch also incorporates moments of great poignancy that add depth and emotion...Deines's accompanying artwork is achingly beautiful...That danger can exist amid such beauty is an important lesson to learn. That the human spirit can triumph under the most trying of conditions is even more important. Quill and Quire This book is true, and it is really sad...[it] is a good book to help you understand how people feel and the things they have to do if they feel like they need to run away from bad things that are happening where they live. -Rachel, Age 9 Kids' BookBuzz
