In an effort to boost the birth rate of the master race, the Nazis instituted a frightening program called Lebensborn (the Fount of Life).  SS soldiers were encouraged to breed with females deemed to be of racially valuable stock. Some were German, others were women and girls of captive nations and in 1942, an even more sinister aspect of the Lebensborn program was established. The Nazis believed that there were lost seeds of the Aryan nation amidst the Slavs. In an effort to reclaim these supposed lost Germans, children were stolen from their parents and shipped to Lebensborn homes for further testing and brainwashing. 

In Stolen Child, Marsha Skrypuch imagines the story of twelve-year-old Nadia Krawchuk, who has immigrated with her parents to Canada, but her re-location triggers disturbing dreams and ultimately vivid memories of another family and a girl she recalls as Gretchen.  This is a powerful, moving and disturbing tale of one of the lesser known horrors of Hitler’s racial obsession.

Genre/Category: YA Fiction
Setting: Germany and Canada
Period: World War II

Canadian (English, French) rights, Scholastic Canada

For all other rights contact The Cooke Agency.

Marsha Skrypuch’s books have been nominated for many awards, including ALA Best Book for Teens 2009, CLA Children's Book of the Year 2006, OLA Best Bets, and many provincial readers’ choice awards including Red Maple, Silver Birch and White Pine. In 2008 she was bestowed with the Order of Princess Olha by President Yushchenko of Ukraine for her writings about the Holodomor (Ukrainian Famine). She lives in Brantford, Ontario. Marsha Skrypuch’s website can be found at www.calla.com