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Mina Javaherbin is the award wining author of GOAL! and The Secret Message. Her books have been translated into fifteen different languages, have won a few awards to date and are also nominated for more. Her latest deal was the sale of the rights of The Secret Message to be translated into Japanese.
Mina is also in the midst of a deal for her third book. She is not giving us any more information about it at this point, but we’ll keep you posted. When I asked her to write a little blog for us this is what she shared.
My father was one of those fathers who wore a suit in the morning and worked about ten hours a day.
But we still ate together. He read to us, he helped us with our homework and he took us on vacations. He was the sort of dad who taught us how to ride a bike, how to swim and he took us to sporting events.
I turned out fine.
But so did many other children who did not have a present father, had a part time father, or lost their fathers early on.
By this I’m not bringing down the value of fatherhood and I’m not playing down the influence a father can have on a child’s life. On the contrary I want to look at fatherhood in a new light. I really want to point out that this father and child deal works both ways. Children are resourceful, resilient and full of lessons and joys.
A father would be robbing himself of one of the most precious and peaceful parts of fatherhood by not spending play time, reading time, eating time or any sort of time with their child.
The most love a father can give himself in life is the time he actually spends to teach his daughter how to swim, to teach his son how to ride that bike and to take his children to the park to shoot some hoops.
Although as parents we are obligated and most of us actually do try hard to keep our children fed and healthy and see to their education and more, but the most important part of all this is the joy we gain by feeding them, educating them, playing and laughing with them.
There are selfish motives involved in parenting and I wish we are all selfish enough mothers and fathers to indulge ourselves in these delights fast and often as our children grow up so quick.
With all the challenges in our daily lives let’s not forget to enjoy fatherhood.
Read, laugh, play and seriously consider being goofy! Our children truly enhance our lives as we enhance theirs by the time we spend together.
Here is the Author’s Note from The Secret Message published in Nov 2010 by Hyperion/Disney.
“When I was a child, growing up in Iran, I begged my father every evening to tell me the story of the parrot and the merchant. It was a tale he told from memory. I still remember the fantastic scenes that played in my imagination as he spoke.
GIVEAWAY:
Fathers: A Literary Anthology edited by Andre Gerard
About the editor:
Andre Gerard (Publisher) has an MA in English Literature from the University of Washington and over twenty-five years of private tutoring experience. As for the skills required to manage the constant chaos associated with publishing, Andre credits marathon running with building stamina, discipline and toughness: bird banding with sharpening curiousity and a sense of adventure; and lengthy stints as a Postal Production Planning and Quality Assurance Officer and, later, as a Fish Processing Plant Manager with teaching him practical business skills. His favourite refrain is Melville’s “Oh, Time, Strength, Cash and Patience.”
About the book:
Fathers: A Literary Anthology is a literary treasure trove. Wise and wonderfully varied essays and poems by five Nobel laureates and by writers such as Margaret Atwood, Alan Bennet, Angela Carter, Virginia Woolf and Franz Kafka also make Fathers a powerful self-help manual for all children trying to understand and improve their relationships with their fathers. As well, the inspired musings in this collection will help all fathers—fathers young and fathers old—better appreciate the complexities of their role and the rich rewards it offers.
My take on the book:
Fathers: A Literary Anthology has something for everyone interested in reading about different perspectives about fatherhood. This compilation of essays, poems and excerpts has been meticulously put together by the book’s publisher/editor Andre Gerard. The inclusion of such amazing literary and historic figures such as Winston Churchill, James Baldwin and Leonard Cohen is really impressive and will be a huge draw for literature enthusiasts such as myself (My B.A is in Literature).
The introductions to each piece in this collection are very well written and give the reader excellent insights into the reason for their inclusion. One of my favorite essays in the anthology is “In the Name of My Father” by Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr. Saro-Wiwa Jr.’s father was a political activist in Nigeria who spoke out against Shell Oil’s activities in his country. His father’s death in November of 1995 rocked the world and many throughout the world condemned the Nigerian government’s actions included such figures as Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton. Saro-Wiwa Jr.’s essay is very moving and is sure to bring out sympathy from readers.
Another must-read, among the many, from this anthology is James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son, a stirring piece on racism and its consequences through several generations.
All in all, I’m thrilled to have had the opportunity to read and review this collection. For lovers of literature, it is a worthy book to add to your shelf, and for those interested in the multi-faceted views on fathers will not be disappointed in adding this to their shelves as well.
Reading Through Chaos
As I read a Curious George book aloud to my sons, I was struck by the example of the little monkey. Almost without exception, George willfully disregards the instruction of his father figure, the Man with the Yellow Hat, and gets into trouble. Yet the story is always brought to a happy ending by George somehow redeeming himself in a serendipitous way – had he not snuck into the penguin tank, he wouldn’t have been able to save the baby penguin.
Obviously, George doesn’t have a mind of his own; his is a manifestation of H.A. Rey, the creator of George and his curiosity. Does the author believe the ends always justify the means? Was the author trying to force a pragmatic worldview upon his impressionable readers? I cannot speak to Rey’s motivation, but, as a father, I can point out the error in George’s behavior and teach my boys about George’s disobedience, even if he did save the baby penguin.
When we teach our kids to read, we give them the keys to the most exhilarating mode of transportation ever created. They can go anywhere, be anyone, and do anything. But, just as it would be foolish to give our kids the keys to a Ferrari without teaching them to drive, we shouldn’t teach our kids to read without also teaching them to discern.
Why is a child susceptible to a goon in a black van offering them candy? Because they innocently trust; they’ve no reason to doubt. They assume the act of benevolence is a revelation of the giver’s nature, and gratefully accept the bait. Perhaps not so calculated, authors possess the same power of influence over readers, especially readers without discernment. That influence is one of the reasons I write. Were it not for the potential to influence I would leave my words bound in a diary.
The Golden Compass is the first volume in the “His Dark Materials” trilogy, written by Philip Pullman. The book came under the intense scrutiny of the Christian church for its apparent anti-God, anti-church message. J.R.R. Tolkien was accused of writing “The Lord of The Rings” trilogy as a mere allegory with a pro-God message. Both authors rejected the claims their novels were anything more than works of fiction, but neither denied the influence of their personal beliefs on their writing.
When asked about the influence of his faith on “The Lord of the Rings,” Tolkien said, “The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like ‘religion’, to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism.”(1) Frankly, I don’t see how it could be any other way. If you read any of my writing, you won’t find the use of obscene words. I strive to avoid them in my speech, I don’t want my kids to use them, and I don’t like to read them, therefore I don’t include them in my text. My personal belief influences my written content. But, particular words are the least of our concern; the real issues are themes
Amber signing her first books! What a proud moment for Dad AND daughter!
Editor’s Introduction:
As we have celebrated both fatherhood and literacy this month on Book Dads, I’ve been overwhelmed by the enthusiastic participation of all of the guests featured throughout June. Almost everyone I contacted with an invitation to participate responded with a resounding yes! The beauty of this isn’t just the feeling of satisfaction I received simply from having so many wanting to participate. No, for me it’s about knowing others who are as passionate about fatherhood and literacy as I am. While I’ve enjoyed every minute of my work as editor of Book Dads, this month’s Father’s Day Celebration has been the most fulfilling and meaningful so far. By the way, we’re going to extend the celebration past Father’s Day all the way until June 30th.
As a result, I really wanted to kick off Father’s Day weekend with something extra special so I’ve been holding onto this post for a few weeks now.
Many of you may have seen the story in the New York Daily News. If not, you may have seen me post the story to Twitter or Facebook as well.
Please enjoy my review of two books written by the Daddy/Daughter team known as Daddy Daughter Publishing: Ephraim Benton and his seven-year-old daughter, Amber Benton.
About Daddy Daughter Publishing:
Daddy Daughter Publishing is a father/daughter team that creates stories. Seven year old Amber writes and creates the characters, while her father Ephraim takes her characters and creates a more concrete story. Their mission is to create stories and promote literacy in urban or impoverished communities. In the future, we will publish other children’s books by other kids and create animated cartoons.
To learn more, visit their website (www.daddydaughterpub.com).
About the books:
The Story of Two Best Friends: Nail & Hammer – Nail & Hammer is the story of two best friends who do everything together. It deals with friendship, peer
By:
Chris Singer,
on 6/14/2011
Blog:
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At Book Dads, we believe strongly in the powerful role dads play in helping their children develop a lifelong love of reading. While this month at Book Dads has been a celebration of fatherhood and reading, we would be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge how fortunate many of us are to be able to provide books and a healthy and safe reading environment for our children.
Throughout much of the world, this is not something that can be taken for granted. Last month, I was saddened to read the following tweet from LitWorld: “47% of Detroit’s adult population is functionally illiterate. This is unacceptable. Everyone deserves the right to read!” If you’re like me, you’re going to be stuck trying to grasp that 47% for a few minutes. My first question after reading that tweet was, “How many vulnerable children are affected by that 47%?” I then began to wonder about the probability that this may continue through the next two or three generations unless something is done to break the cycle.
On a visit to Detroit last week, I saw first hand the dramatic effects a 47% illiteracy rate has on a city. It’s not pretty and I left that night extremely saddened by what I saw in one of my favorite cities.
At Book Dads, we also feel very strongly about the second part of the tweet: “Everyone deserves the right to read!” Like LitWorld, we also believe in this and for that reason we have helped spread their powerful message of literacy for all. We’re honored to include our friends from LitWorld as part of our Father’s Day Celebration.
LitWorld is undertaking two important projects this summer as they will work to bring the power of story to hundreds of young people from Kenya to Harlem. However, in order to accomplish these projects, they need OUR help! LitWorld is calling out to the community to help by donating books and school supplies:
KENYA:
On July 8, 2011, members of the LitWorld team are headed to Kenya to visit our partners at the Children of Kibera Foundation. LitWorld works very closely with the Children of Kibera Foundation’s Red Rose School, where we run programs such as the Girls Clubs for Literacy Project. The Red Rose School is a beacon of hope for the children of Kibera, and is a positive learning environment providing education for children who are HIV/AIDS orphans.
HARLEM:
Starting this summer, LitWorld will set up the Story Power Camp project, a summer reading enrichment program for the youth of the Children’s Village, Polo Grounds Community Center. The Story Power Camp aims to engage young people in reading and writing through fun, interactive activities, while encouraging each participant to boldly share their personal stories. The Children’s Village works in partnership with families to help society’s most vulnerable children so that they become educationally proficient, economically productive and socially responsible members of their communities.
When my wife told me she was pregnant with our baby, one of the first things I did (after I finally stopped freaking out and started eating again) was start taking mental notes on exactly which books from my childhood I couldn’t wait to introduce to my child. The Rainbow Goblins by Ul De Rico, Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, and Wynken, Blynken & Nod by Eugene Field. They all flew right to the top of the list. Keep in mind that I had zero clue what sex our baby would be, whether the little kiddo would even like books, or if she’d sit still long enough for me to turn past page one. It didn’t matter. Those were books that I cherished as a kid and those were the first books I’d have on hand when Baby Neumyer came into the world.
About nine months later, our little Wiggle Bear (which has effectively become her name at this point) was born and for the next three weeks or so, I don’t remember thinking of any books at all. I didn’t think about what I’d like to read, what I’d like to read to her, or what she might like to read when she’s five, ten, fifteen, or thirty-five. The only thing I thought about was how to get a few precious minutes of sleep.
You see, what everyone tells you when your wife first gets pregnant is that having kids is hard work. Rewarding, of course, but hard work. What all these people fail to tell you, however, is how insanely hard having kids actually is. They couldn’t. There’s no possible way to form sentences that could actually convey just how difficult child-rearing (especially those vital first three weeks) is on your physical, mental, and emotional state. There are times that you and your wife begin to resemble something out of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead. In the end, however, none of this matters. Those first three weeks pass, you find your way, and your little bundle of awesome grows to be an even more amazing bundle of awesome. Mark my words.
And when those three weeks or so finally do pass, one of the first things you do is start piling up all the books you bought (or received as gifts at the baby shower) for the little one. You make meticulous lists about which book you’ll read Baby Awesome first (Wynken, Blynken & Nod. It’s always Wynken, Blynken & Nod.), which books you’ll read to Baby Awesome over and over again, and which books you’ll only read to Baby Awesome if they specifically ask to hear them (yes, there are some books even I can’t s
“What do most Nobel Laureates, innovative entrepreneurs, artists and performers, well-adjusted children, happy couples and families, and the most successfully adapted mammals have in common? They play enthusiastically throughout their lives.”
~ Stuart Brown, MD, Institute of Play
I love the image of a mother reading to her child. But a sight that is just as charming to me is a father reading to his little one.
Men are traditionally encouraged to be stoic and focus on the day-to-day struggles of providing for their families – certainly noble and vital pursuits. Taking time for something as frivolous as reading fairy tales to a child, well, that’s just silly.
Sometimes, however, silly can be the most important thing in the world.
When a father escapes with his child into a world of fantasy, his worries – at least for a moment – dissolve. His brain pulls off its necktie, kicks off its shoes and runs barefoot through a grassy field. It frolics in the world of imagination.
If we forget to push the “play” button in our brains every once in a while, though, it becomes harder and harder to escape into that magical land. We risk losing altogether the map that leads us back to the treasures of childhood.
Sharing a book with a child is a wonderful way for a father to stay connected to the world of fantasy and imagination. I love to watch a friend of mine, who is a lawyer, read to his 5-year-old son. This very serious man who conducts very important business drops all his inhibitions and throws himself into his performance. He turns his voice into a flirty soprano when he read the words of a princess, makes it shaky and low when he intones the words of a king. He croaks like a toad; he roars like a tiger; he howls like the wind. And when he finally reads the words “The End,” he is exhausted but happy.
And even though my friend is reading bedtime stories, his audience has never fallen asleep during a performance – which I think is a great compliment from a very tough critic.
I feel honored and blessed that so many parents, teachers, librarians and babysitters let me read to their kids from my website, via downloads and in person. It’s one of the great joys of my life. But I feel guilty keeping all the fun to myself, so give it a try sometime, Dads. I guarantee you’ll be glad you did!
About me:
TV star Kathy Kinney (“The Drew Carey Show”), portrays Mrs. P and is also one of the creators of the website. The website endeavors to expose young people to great books and stories through a celebrity storyteller, Mrs. P. MrsP.com has no advertising and is completely free, making it a fun and educational online destination for teachers, parents and children. The site also contains interactive games, coloring sheets to download, and activity guides to accompany chapter books like “Alice in Wonderland”. Every story also offers read along options so children can see the words, which is helpful to early readers, and ESL students. Mrs. P is the recipient of The National Parenting Center 2009 Seal of Approval and the American Library Association distinction of “Gre
The Reading Parent
For most of last year I served as “The Reading Parent” for my stepdaughter’s first grade class. One would think that, at it’s utterance, such an official sounding title commanded the same instantaneous respect from school children that similar positions like say, The President or Caesar do in silencing boisterous audiences.
“Boys and girls, The Reading Parent …of the United States!” I imagined the teacher saying in a thick, formal tone as she announced my entrance into the classroom. Not so. I completed three terms as The Reading Parent, and during each stint, this teacher did little more than smile while letting me know that they were just finishing up their art projects.
“Class, let’s clean up. It’s time for The Reading Parent,” she’d then say, causing a dozen glue-smeared faces to snap in my direction and squint with an unnerving gaze, a mix of leering and ravenous. And there I’d stand, like a crippled fawn wearing a suit made from the same fried batter that coats a Chicken McNugget. Noticing how they would glance at the safety scissors clenched inside their chubby paws and then back at me, I could tell what was going through their minds. “Do you think there’s a toy surprise inside?”
It’s at this moment that I usually took my seat at the head of the classroom. As I’d walk towards the undersized folding chair reserved for me, the natives mimicked the cadence of my stride by pounding on their tables and chanting “fresh meat, fresh meat” until their voices reached a frenzied crescendo of unintelligible whooping and howling.
Intimidating as this may sound, I learned to ignore it. They can smell fear—drives ‘em wild. Even the slightest quiver in your voice while recounting the exploits of Little Red Riding Hood and they will go all Big Bad Wolf on you in a Hans Christian Anderson second.
Yet for all the wildness, I relished being The Reading Parent. It‘s one of the few thing I get to do that’s overtly “parent-y.” Due to certain circumstances, my wife and I aren’t able to be as involved in the kids’ activities as much as we would like. Were things different, we’d certainly attend every PTA meeting, throwing in our two cents as to whether or not only gluten-free brownies should be sold at the next fundraiser.
Believe me, I would love to shout, “one thousand dollars!” in front of the entire assembly to make the winning bid for the “Prized Parent” parking space being auctioned off at the Fall Festival. Not only would I come off as the greatest dad since time began, but it would also ensure that my children finally receive speaking parts in the upcoming Christmas Musical. Until then, however, I’ll have to endure another performance where the same kids wearing more custom-made costumes slur their lines into a microphone like drunken celebrities at an awards show.
For now, The Reading Parent is all I’ve got. That’s why when my stepdaughters’ biological father stepped in to be The Reading Parent after moving back to town, I felt as if I had been replaced overnight in a quiet bloodless coup. The morning he was to take on the mantle, my one stepdaughter practically danced in the streets to celebrate as she picked out titles for her dad to read.
“Do you think he’ll like this one?” she asked holding up an I Spy book.
“Uh, maybe. How ‘bout this one?” It was a story about anim
Mina Javaherbin is the award wining author of GOAL! and The Secret Message. Her books have been translated into fifteen different languages, have won a few awards to date and are also nominated for more. Her latest deal was the sale of the rights of The Secret Message to be translated into Japanese.
Bobblehead Dad by Jim Higley
What a fun way to help our two sons learn about Middle Eastern culture…
Many thanks, Cindi
I’d love to share this book with my daugher and my elementary school students to help teach them little about Iran.