Afghan and Islander come together to write children’s book
A brand new youngsters’s ebook about cross-cultural friendship got here out of the true factor.
Crescent Moon Pals is co-authored by Wadia Samadi, born and raised in Afghanistan however now dwelling in Virginia, and Mo Duffy Cobb of Prince Edward Island. The 2 bought collectively as a result of they had been engaged on related initiatives: Cobb with the Afghan Girls’s Writing Challenge, and Samadi with Free Girls Writers, an Afghan group.
“Wadia and I began studying one another’s work on-line, and we began to Skype and chat and get to know one another,” stated Cobb.
They each had younger daughters climbing into the image throughout these Skype calls, and their presence prompted the 2 to consider writing a youngsters’s ebook collectively.
Crescent Moon Pals is the story of an Afghan lady, Aisha, who strikes to Canada and meets Amelia. Over the course of the ebook the ladies acknowledge their variations, however come collectively via the exploration of values they share.
A ebook ‘so particular, so shut’
The ebook represents a really private expertise, Samadi stated.
“I’ve been, I nonetheless am, the character Aisha from this ebook, the Afghan lady who strikes to a brand new land,” she stated.
“I do know so many different women, Aishas, in my life who’ve been via the same journey.”
Samadi was older than Aisha when she moved to the US to go to school in 2007, but it surely was nonetheless an enormous tradition shock, and although settled in Virginia she nonetheless feels she shares one thing with the character.
“There’s fixed eager for house, the fixed wrestle of becoming in, discovering the precise folks, connecting with the precise individuals who settle for you in your variations,” she stated.
“This ebook has all the time — from day one — been so particular, so near me.”
With Canada aiming to draw extra immigrants within the coming years, Cobb and Samadi hope the ebook can play a job in easing the transition each for these arriving and people welcoming them.
“We’re hoping that this ebook can be educating instrument for teenagers, cross-cultural friendships, and can foster extra of these friendships in P.E.I. colleges, in Canadian colleges, as increasingly immigrants come to Canada,” stated Cobb.
The authors will host a ebook launch at The Guild in Charlottetown Saturday at 10 a.m. They’re hoping for turnout of kids. There can be cupcakes and dancing, particularly the attan, an Afghan dance featured within the ebook.
