Hello America is an inspiring success story that will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you tell your friends and neighbors to read this book. Throughout this memoir that describes how a five-year-old girl could charm Nazi soldiers and then later experience the joy of winning scholarships, beauty pageants, and elected office, Mary’s inner beauty will shine through and touch your heart.

There’s an old saying that stories never happen to people who can’t tell them. Mary Matuja tells her story uncommonly well in this engaging memoir and makes us care about a little girl who survives a brutal war in Europe but must start her life all over again when she comes to a new country—ours—and a mother she doesn’t know.—Michael Bortman, Screenwriter of Resurrecting the Champ and Who Will Love My Children?

Some people say your entire life can be summed up by the little dash between the year you are born and the year you die. Mary Matuja’s story can’t be explained in a dash. While some onlookers may think her story is one of rags to riches, it is apparent that many hardships and the blessing of strong family ties created a life story filled with a richness that teaches us about sacrifice and love. Her grandfather would be proud.—Chuck Gaidica, Pastor and Detroit media personality

Young Marya

Mary Matuja

With the pungent fragrance of piroshkies with sauerkraut hanging in the air, Grandmother drags five-year-old Marya to hide in the cellar as World War II gunfire invades her remote village in eastern Czechoslovakia. Under the guidance and protection of her grandmother, grandfather, and aunts, little Marya survives living in the forest and in flea-infested barns while all along her strength and resiliency remain unharmed.