Enough [Hardcover]

This wordy fairy tale by the creators of Silver Threads is rooted in history; according to an introductory note, the setting is "during the Famine instigated by Stalin in 1930's Ukraine." But the volume suffers from the tall-tale quality of the narrative and the exaggerated characterizations. After one of "the Dictator's soldiers" appears on the farm where Marusia lives with her father, he announces, "Your wheat and your farm now belong to the People." He and his compatriots confiscate the crops of every farmer in the village. But Marusia hides one sack of grain that keeps them all alive during the hard winter, and plants seeds from which a magic stalk grows, attracting a large stork. The bird carries her on its back to a land of plenty so she can restock her village's supplies. In a predictable turn of events, another of the Dictator's soldiers makes a similar journey on the stork's back, but hordes so much grain that he and his sacks tumble off into the ocean. Unfortunately, the prose is often overblown when coupled with the oafish characters depicted (e.g., it is "the Dictator's wish that this land be filled with graves"). The villainsAand even the victimized UkrainiansAappear as caricatures in the artwork, which does little to vitalize this heavy-handed narrative. Ages 6-8. (Apr.)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

K-Gr 3-Marusia and her father barely survive on what they grow on their little farm in Zhitya, so, when the Dictator's soldiers claim all of their crops, the family is destitute. Luckily, resourceful Marusia has hidden a bag of grain and feeds her father and friends a thin porridge throughout the winter. When they plant the last of the wheat, one magical stalk attracts a stork that takes the child across the ocean where fellow Ukrainians give her some grain. After she plants it, soldiers take this harvest, and an officer steals seeds from the magic stalk. In the end, his greed gets the best of him. Marusia is then able to come up with a plan to foil the Dictator and assure a peaceful life in Zhitya. As appealing and universal as the theme is, the book is flawed by gaps in its internal logic. When Marusia arrives in "a new world," the expatriates say, "Times are hard, but we are happy to share," but the illustrations show them surrounded by piles of grain. When the stork approaches the officer, the man remembers what happened to Marusia-but how would he know? Martchenko's pastoral illustrations are lovely, but the faces of the characters are cartoonlike and don't suit the mood of the story. Marusia sometimes looks like a distant cousin to Tintin, and this spunky heroine deserves better.-Jeanne Clancy Watkins, Chester County Library, Exton, PA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

"This spirited Ukrainian folktale is set at the time of the famine which was instigated by Stalin in 1930s Ukraine. Marusia and her father live on a small farm and try to eke out a living for themselves from it. It is following a particularly good harvest that a soldier arrives to remind them that the dictator claims their farm and their wheat as his own. Marusia cleverly hides a sack of the grain before the dictator’s forces come and claim all grain for their leader. Faced with starvation, Marusia is befriended by a stork who carries her to a far-off land (the North American prairies) where there is plenty to eat and where Ukrainian cousins are willing to share the goodness of their lives. Marusia arrives back home with seed enough for everyone to plant. Once again, the dictator’s men arrive just as the wheat is to be harvested. Filled with greed, they stock bulging silos with more wheat, until it lays rotting in storage. Still, they do not have ‘enough.’ A quick-thinking young woman and a hardworking group of villagers are able to outwit the dictator and his soldiers in an interesting turn of events. When all is said and done, the villages will have "enough" to sustain themselves and no one will be the wiser for it. Martchenko’s art will be familiar to Robert Munsch fans. His expressive characters and detailed settings are complementary to the text. His cultural knowledge is evident in the dress of his characters and he adds gentle warmth and humour to a well-told tale." - Sally Bender, The Brandon Sun, Brandon, Manitoba

"Michael Martchenko’s illustrations play nicely into this picture book set in a village in Ukraine as the Soviets come into power. Even in the best of times, Marusia and her father eke a meagre living from their farm, but with the "Dictator" in power, their farm and their grain are expropriated. Plucky Marusia takes matters into her own hands and, helped by a stork, flies across the sea to a verdant land, gathering enough grain to feed the village. That grain is also expropriated, leaving Marusia no choice but to devise a wickedly simple ruse to foil the oppressor." - The Globe and Mail

"Picture books aren’t necessarily baby books or even easy books. Some tell very mature stories. One of my children refused to listen to chapter books long after she could comprehend them. For her, a book meant pictures and that meant colour - and not artsy black and white woodcuts either. When she finally began to read on her own, it was Disney fairy tales - brown paper wrappers were on the way - but fortunately she soon moved on to Second World War novels. Thanks to her we learned about artists such as Raymond Briggs and William Steig. Endowed with black humour and afraid of nothing, not even war, they prove picture books have little to do with age. In Enough, Canadian writer Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch has stayed with the classic folk tale formula of a greedy landlord and his men who steal the harvest. This particular landlord is Josef Stalin, though he is never named. After years of hunger, a little heroine named Marusia finally masterminds a scheme to dig graves to hide the grain. News of such a large graveyard reached the dictator who came to inspect the sacrifice. --Horrified, Marusia saw a scrap of cloth, along with a few grains of wheat, sticking out of the last grave.-- Luckily, the dictator assumed the peasants were too stupid to use coffins. Skrypuch never swerves from the folk tale devices of her story. Despite her historical allusions, there is a magic stork which flies her to the Canadian Prairies for crucial seed. And Michael Martchenko’s spirited illustrations full of specific detail right from the Ukrainian shawl lining the endpapers, give the story the weight of truth. Beside the peasants’ bright clothes and rich yellow fields of grain, a graveyard overwhelmed with storm clouds shocks the reader into understanding what famine means." - Elizabeth MacCallum, The National Post

"Enough is an excellent storytime selection for primary students and an important study for intermediate and older students, even adults. For young children, this is a spellbinding Ukrainian folktale complete with magic, the conflict of good and evil, and a happy ending. The story takes place during a real-life atrocity, the Famine of the 1930’s, but Marsha Skrypuch’s unresentful and talented storytelling allows this serious subject to be a perfect setting for the actions of a female hero. Michael Martchenko’s superior drawings add just the right amount of humour. The large, brightly coloured 19 x 21 cm pictures are suitable for group presentations. In the story, the Dictator has taken all of the villagers’ wheat except a small bag that Marusia has hidden. After planting their last big of grain, an unusual stalk of wheat appears and a stork flies down to eat it. This magical bird takes Marusia over the ocean to a new land where fellow Ukrainian farmers have some wheat to share. Marusia uses her babushka to take just enough grain to plant and the stork flies her back to the village. But these fields of wheat are also taken by the Dictator’s men, except the bit that Marusia again hides. One greedy officer takes the grain from the magical stalk. The stork appears once more and takes him over the fields which are empty of everything except graves. He flies over the ocean to the land of plenty, but, instead of taking only what he needs, the officer fills bags and even his clothing full of grain. This is too much of a load for thestork, and on the return trip the officer and the wheat end up in the sea. Wise Marusia understands that their problems are not over, for the Dictator will not rest until all the fields are filled with graves. The villagers bury their wheat in the graves, then most of them hide when the Dictator comes. With a bit of flattery, Marusia convinces the Dictator that he need not bother with their village again. Younger children can predict and draw or write what will happen after each event in the story. They can map the stork’s journey, and find the babushka in each picture - the same beautiful one featured in the photograph inside the front and back covers. They can learn about wheat and compare methods of farming in the 1930’s and today. Some interesting information about Canadian farming and Ukrainian wheat is included at the front of the book. Older children enjoy picture books and this one could be well used for illustrating folktale writing or for introducing multicultural, historical and Remembrance Day themes. The author includes website, film and book titles that describe the famine imposed by Stalin on the Ukrainian farmers in the 1930’s. Not only were their harvests taken from them, but also the Ukrainians were not allowed to travel to seek food. Millions of people starved to death, yet compared to other atrocities, this one is little known. Enough is the second picture book that features the team of Marsha Skrypuch and Michael Martchenko. . . This author exposes us, in a kindly manner, to history that should not be overlooked. Highly recommended for school and public libraries." - ResourceLinks

This heart-warming Ukrainian folktale, set during the Great Famine of the 1930s, tells of a young girl's attempts to save her village from starvation.

When soldiers take the village's wheat, Marusia hides just enough to survive. She and her father share with the other villagers over the winter, then plant the few remaining grains in the spring. A gigantic stalk of magical wheat grows attracting the attention of an equally large and magical stork. The stork flies with Marusia on a magical journey to the prairies, where farmers give Marusia enough wheat for her village.

Word of the magical journey reaches a greedy officer, who tricks the stork into retracing the magical journey. But the officer does not understand the meaning of "enough" and his greed leads to his doom. Back in the village, Marusia and her father know they must devise a clever plan to protect their wheat from other greedy soldiers . . . and perhaps from the dictator himself!

I did not know about the Ukrainian Famine until the mid-1980s, when I read Robert Conquest's Harvest of Sorrow. I wanted to write about this great tragedy in a way that preserved the dignity of those who were killed, while at the same time, informing readers of this little-known genocide. In Enough, the reader is able to step into the shoes of Marusia and feel what it must have been like to live during a time when all the food was confiscated and people were left to die because of a far-off dictator's ideology about who deserved to live.

This heartwarming Ukrainian folktale, set during the Famine of the 1920s, tells of a young girl's attempts to save her village from starvation. Marusia's ingenuity gives her the opportunity to go on a magical journey to the North American Prairies to find more food for her village.

Generosity triumphs over greed in this spiritedUkrainian folktale.

Marsha Skrypuch is the author of many books for children, including Silver Threads, The Best Gifts, Enough, The Hunger and Hope's War. Among the numerous writing awards won her novel about the Armenian genocide, Nobody's Child, was nominated for the Red Maple Award, the Alberta Rocky Mountain Book Award, the B.C. Stellar Award; and it was listed by Resource Links as a Best Book.