I was reading the STrib again here at work, and this article was really interesting, for those of you who read my blog and also enjoy language:
The language of home, in a bedtime story
The first of four English-Somali children’s books will become available in October.
Delma J. Francis, Star Tribune
Imagine being the parent of a small child who wants to read a bedtime story, but you’re just learning English and you can’t find children’s books in your native language.
That has been the plight for many Somali parents new to the state, but the Minnesota Humanities Commission hopes to change that with the publication of four children’s books with both English and Somali text. The first, “The Lion’s Share” (”Qayb Libaax”), will be available in October.
The effort is part of the commission’s Somali Bilingual Initiative, begun in 2003, said Kathleen Moriarty, director of bilingual and heritage language programs and one of the authors of the four books. “It follows on the work we did on the Hmong translation of 17 existing children’s stories such as ‘Goodnight Moon’ and ‘The Runaway Bunny,’ ” she said. “That need arose from the Mother Read, Father Read program designed to help parents be literacy leaders for their children.”
With the success of that program, the commission began receiving requests for translations in Somali, a language that has existed in written form only since 1972, Moriarty said.
Minnesota is home to the largest population of Somali immigrants in the country, with numbers estimated between 25,000 by the Minnesota State Demographic Center and 60,000 by local Somali organizations.
Three years ago, the Somali Bilingual Initiative began offering Somali language and literacy conferences to connect people with existing bilingual resources. Currently, there are about 80 direct translations of children’s stories from English to Somali. But the Bilingual Initiative wanted to take it further, with publication of four traditional Somali folk tales, in an effort to help preserve the culture as well as introduce Somali culture to those for whom English is a first language.
“It’s been a very collaborative and exciting project,” Moriarty said. “We worked with two Somali writers and two illustrators, and two non-Somali writers and illustrators. And that was intentional.” In each of the works, if the writer is Somali, the illustrator is non-Somali and vice versa.
“I was very excited and happy to be a part of this,” said Said Salah Ahmed, who wrote “The Lion’s Share.” Said, 60, has lived here 10 years and was a part of the project from the beginning. “Not only did I do the book, but I was among the people who selected the stories” to be published and illustrated, he said.
Although he has had some children’s stories published in magazines, this is the first book for Ahmed, who teaches science bilingually, English as a second language and Somali at Sanford Middle School in Minneapolis.
“I really enjoyed it. I love learning about other cultures, and I didn’t know anything about the Somali culture,” said Kelly Dupre, who illustrated “The Lion’s Share” and wrote the upcoming “The Travels of Igal Shidad.” The intense collaboration made for more work, but “we ended up with something more well-rounded,” said Dupre, 44, of Grand Marais, Minn., a former special education and biology teacher for Osseo schools.
She wrote and illustrated “The Raven’s Gift: A True Story From Greenland” and was the illustrator for “The Littlest Christmas Kitten.”
The other books in the Humanities Commission series are “Dhegdheer,” by Marian Hassan, illustrated by Betsy Bowen, available in November; “The Travels of Igal Shidad,” by Dupre, illustrated by Abdulaziz Osman, and “Wiil Waal,” by Kathleen Moriarty, illustrated by Amin Amir, both available in spring 2007.
The books will be available at the humanities commission website, www.minnesotahumanities.org, on Amazon.com and possibly at Red Balloon and Wild Rumpus bookstores. The hardback will sell for $15.95; paperback, $7.95.
