And a full house it was, when last week Tuesday, all grade 3 and 4 students and their teachers met for an author session with Khalid Saleem in the library as part of our Literacy Week celebrations. (Great to see that our library can fit over 80 students for such an event into the space around the whiteboard.) While Mr. Saleem is popular and well-known among our students, many did not know that he is a published children's author. There was much cheering and applause as I introduced Mr. Saleem to our students.
Projected onto the whiteboard, students could read along and see the illustrations, while Mr. Saleem read The Circle, the story of a young boy, growing up in a dysfunctional family. The short text and the accompanying black and white illustrations convey a powerful message about how to find one's own happiness in life - or rather how challenging it is for those who don't have happiness and love in their lives to give happiness to others.
Projected onto the whiteboard, students could read along and see the illustrations, while Mr. Saleem read The Circle, the story of a young boy, growing up in a dysfunctional family. The short text and the accompanying black and white illustrations convey a powerful message about how to find one's own happiness in life - or rather how challenging it is for those who don't have happiness and love in their lives to give happiness to others.
Very exciting for all of us was when Mr. Saleem brought into the conversation about the book via Skype the illustrator, David M. Koch, who collaborated with him on this project. Both then shared about how the idea and eventually the book came to life and answered our students many questions. Here are some of the things we learned during the session:
| About writing/the story: Mr. Saleem worked with underprivileged children at the time and was thereby inspired to write this story. Mr. Koch had a similar experience, growing up in a really poor neighbourhood himself. Shel Silverstein's book The Giving Tree provided some inspiration for the story and its illustrations. The first complete draft took about 2-4 weeks - but the entire process from first idea to publication might have taken about a year. Lots of revising, reading and rewriting took place. About collaboration: Both had long conversations about how best to go about it. The message was really important to them in reflection of their own experiences at the time and what was going on in their lives. Both think that the book chose them when reflecting how they got together to work on this project. They were both in the same class at the time, liked each other, got talking and eventually began working on the book. | About illustrating/the illustrations: Drawing is all about practice. Practice and you can become really good. Mr. Koch wanted to keep the drawings simple to avoid that the important things get lost among too many little details. The illustrations were first hand drawn and then with the help of a drawing pad transferred to the computer. Mr. Koch, who studied film making at the time, said that illustrating and filming require similar skills as both times you are trying to frame a picture. Would they change anything in the story now if they could? As life and their circumstances have changed since they wrote the book, the new experiences that came along would shape and influence the story. Technology has advanced and so the possibilities for illustrating are much better, providing better ways to communicate ideas through pictures. |
A big THANK YOU to both,
Khalid Saleem and David Koch,
for making time to share their story with us!
Khalid Saleem and David Koch,
for making time to share their story with us!
| Many students asked how they could get a copy of Mr. Saleem's book. Here the respective information. If you would like to order a print edition, you can do so through the following website: http://www.lulu.com/shop/khalid-saleem/the-circle/hardcover/product-302584.html An electronic version to be read in iBooks on an iPad can be purchased through the Apple Store at the following link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-circle/id467169641?mt=11 | 
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