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Promoting Understanding Through Young People’s Literature
August 28, 2021
Reflections from children's book authors who write about fostering understanding and overcoming adversity. (Segments of this show were originally broadcast in November and December of 2020.)
Fauja Singh Keeps Going: A Conversation with Simran Jeet Singh August 28, 2021
Sikh characters in children’s literature are the rarest of the rare. But Simran Jeet Singh, a New York-based writer, teacher, and advocate, set out to change that with “Fauja Singh Keeps Going,” an illustrated picture book about the real-life 109-year-old Sikh marathon runner who shattered world records. 

As our discussion continues, Simran Jeet Singh gets personal, reflecting on how he confronted racism growing up in south Texas, when he moved to Boston and how he learned the struggle of belonging is so common for immigrants.  Jeet Singh explains how these experiences and his hopes for the future inform his work as an activist and why representation in culture and media matters.

Simran Jeet Singh, Author of the children's book, Fauja Singh Keeps Going, educator, and activist. He is a columnist for Religion News Service, host of the Spirited podcast, and a visiting professor of religion at Union Theological Seminary.


Simran Jeet Singh. Image courtesy Religion News Service

Simran Jeet Singh

Fauja Singh Keeps Going-courtesy Penguin Random House

Fauja Singh Keeps Going
Penguin Random House
Table filled with Pakistani food. Photograph by Shubert Ciencia shared under a Creative Commons By Attribution license, via Wikimedia Commons.
Making a Place at the Table August 28, 2021
A middle-grade book, explores food, family, and interfaith friendship. Unlike most books for this age group, the families are intact and kids are not tasked with saving the world.  Instead, they wrestle with finding their way as first-generation immigrants and confront the stressors their parents face from depression and anxiety to financial stress. Set in a small American suburb, co-authors Laura Shovan, and Saadia Faruqi introduce readers to experiences drawn from their lives. Readers meet how a young Jewish and Muslim girl find friendship in an unlikely place, an afterschool cooking club.

Saadia Faruqi, Pakistani American author, essayist, interfaith activist, and author of Meet Yasmin! and A Place At The Table.

Laura Shovan. Author of the award-winning Middle-grade novel The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, and poet-in-the-schools for the Maryland State Arts Council.


 
Saadia Faruqi. Photo by QZB Photography-courtesy Clarion Books

Saadia Faruqi

Laura Shovan. Image copyright Linda Joy Burke, and courtesy Laura Shova

Laura Shovan

A Place at the Table. Image courtesy Calrion Books

A Place at the Table

Clarion Books




Our theme music is by MC Yogi

This week's closing music, New Hope, by Audiobinger,
used under a Creative Commons By Attribution 4.0 license.

All additional music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Remixes and sound design by Dissimilation Heavy Industries
.