A Letter to Author, from the Earthquake-stricken Kermanshah

A girl from the earthquake-stricken Rijaab in Kermanshah, Iran, writes a letter to author, MohammadHadi Mohammadi.

The librarian of this city, sent a photo of this letter to Read with Me project coordinators in Tehran:

“From Sahar

Hello to Mr. MohammadHadi Mohammadi

I’m thankful to you, dear author for entertaining us with your books. Do you know how I became fascinated by your books? The librarian read your book only to me. “Seven Horses” was really good. The story of the second book [was that] my friend and I were going home when Ms. Zareyi told us: let’s read this book and perform its play. That’s how I became fascinated by your books. And I have read 14 of your books since and now I beg you to come to our city please and I’ll wait for your reply.

Your fan, Sahar”

The photo of this letter was sent to Mr. Mohammadi. As soon as he received the letter, he sent this reply along with a copy of one of his books “Arash the Archer”:

“To my dear Sahar whose letter brought me warmth and joy, I wish you an eternity of happiness.”

A suggestion to teachers, tutors, librarians, reading promoters and all who read to children:

Ask children and students to write to authors. Children in difficult living situations can especially be encouraged to express their most inner emotions this way. If you have the facilities, you could invite authors, translators or illustrators to your classroom or library. This is one way of making children interested in reading books.

Even if you don’t have the means to send the letter to author, you could ask children to write an essay on their favorite writer. Or encourage them to write letters as a post-reading-aloud activity.