Book description
Kataryna Baliuk, a gifted fine arts student, is hoping to have a
fresh start at Cawthra School for the Arts after a
less-than-successful year at the neighbouring Catholic high school.
But her hopes for a peaceful Grade 10 are shattered when she comes
home from her first day at Cawthra and finds the RCMP interrogating
her grandfather, Danylo Feschuk. Kat learns that Danylo is accused of
being a policeman for the Nazis in World War II Ukraine, and what's
worse, he is suspected of having participated in atrocities against civilians.
When the story is exposed in the local newspaper, Kat and her family
become the centre of a media storm. Her grades in school and her
relationships with friends suffer. Her only support comes from her
family and Ian, a classmate with whom she discovers she has more in
common than just artistic promise.
Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is the author of two previous young adult
novels - The Hunger (1999) and Hope's War (2001), which
was nominated for the Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award. Skrypuch
is also the author of three picture books for children. She lives in
Brantford, Ontario with her husband and son, and has a BA in English
and an MLS.
