Patron of Reading
Dear Friends
I was very excited to be invited to become a patron of reading at your school. I was lucky enough to have a chance to visit your school earlier this year and meet a few of the teachers. I hope it won't be too long before I can also meet all of you.
At the moment, my scientific day job is probably busier than ever before, but I am also finding time for my children's book projects too. This year I want to publish a new book of mine called "The Toad from Outer Space". I'm working with an illustrator in the USA to come up with ideas that will suit the funny story. He has worked with me on some of my other books, so he will know exactly what is needed to bring the characters to life.
I also support a children's medical charity called the World Medical Fund (WMF) that works in Malawi in Africa. As well as helping them with medical projects, a children's book I wrote to raise money for them has recently been translated into Spanish. We also developed a free game to go with the book and have sent it to a few schools to try.
I have been finding that this has been a great time to catch up with my own reading, so I hope you are reading a lot of books too. It would be great to hear about your favourites.
See you soon (or "à bientôt" as they say here in France)
Faiz
UPDATE
Dear Friends
I'm very excited to share a little video reading project I've been working on with a library in Switzerland that will go live on YouTube this week:
English Story Time GGG Basel West Library March 11 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQWVBJh7ufg
The library staff asked me if I could do a reading of my book "The Frog Who Was Blue" which is about a young frog who starts at a new school but gets a big surprise when he gets there. I originally wrote the story to support the the World Medical Fund (WMF), which is a children's medical charity I support that works in Malawi in Africa so they also asked me to speak about that.
As well as helping WMF, other charities have been using the book in different countries and we have had lots of great feedback from children (please see the attached photos). So far, the book has been translated into 5 languages and we hope to have more translations in the future so that it can be read and enjoyed by school children in different countries. We also have a free board game that can be downloaded from my website: https://www.childrensfunnybooks.co.uk/free-stuff/
I have my fingers crossed that in the future I can meet you in person and hear what you have been up to over the past year, especially what you have been reading and writing!
See you soon!
Faiz
Wednesday 24th November 2021
On Wednesday, 24th of November 2021, the year 4 children had the pleasure of meeting the author Faiz Kermani. This was an excellent opportunity for the students to receive some essential tips on writing (and reading!) from an experienced author and he certainly did not disappoint! Faiz explained where his ideas stem from, how long it takes him to write his books and, very importantly, how he uses the criticism his work gets to improve and edit his writing.
Below are some comments from the children that attended his assembly and in-class workshop:
"I had no idea that you can be both a scientist and a writer! I want to do the same!"
"I learnt that in order to become a good writer you need to do a lot of reading first."
"Some of his ideas came from simple things, so a good writer can be inspired by anything around him."
"I can't believe that we had a real author in the class!"
This was definitely an inspiring event and the children are looking forward for more opportunities to meet their role models in the future!