I have to try to update my photo gallery more often!
Problem is I do it so infrequently that each time I put together the web album, I have to relearn the process of posting it!
Argh! In some ways it would be so much easier to just hand all the website maintenance over to my webmaster. But I had to decide to take on the maintenance of it myself!
Anyway, they’re finally up!
Today I spent many hours putting up four web albums!
You can view them on my photo gallery page.
This one’s for the Charlotte Zolotow award. Here I had tons of photos to choose from! Mine including the ones that the official photographer Jo Matzner was kind enough to send me. As promised, I credited all of Ms. Matzner’s photos.
http://www.rukhsanakhan.com/photogallery/TheCharlotteZolotowAward/
The next photo album is much smaller! It’s my Golden Kite photo album. Problem is I tend to take relatively few pictures even with my digital camera. When I went up on stage to accept my award I asked one of the reps to take the pictures for me. She was such a nice lady but I just can’t remember her name!
I must have put the settings on the camera weird, or maybe it was just because it was one of those huge conference halls where the lighting is kind of particular, but the pictures on my camera didn’t come out well at all! They’re mostly dark. So I lifted some photos off the SCBWI blog. It’s a team blog and they were wonderful! You can check out their blog, the ling is on the right of this page, in my blog roll.
But anyway, here’s the photo album for the Golden Kite award:
http://www.rukhsanakhan.com/photogallery/TheGoldenKiteAward2011/
Earlier this year my nephew, niece and some of my nephew’s friends got together to form a charitable foundation. The first project we did (I think I’m some kind of consultant on the board or something) was for a Native school here in Toronto.
This is their website: http://ilfcharity.com/
It was up to me to find a needy Native school to do this project in.
(It was kind of going to be like my Orphanages in Afghanistan Library project only for Native libraries here in Canada)
But it turned out to be harder than I thought it would be to find a Native school to help!
It’s not like they’re listed in the directory under ‘n’ for needy native schools!
First thing I did was contact the Native school in Toronto, it’s down on Dundas St. I told them I was looking for a school that needed help with augmenting their library.
I thought they might be able to help me find a needy school.
But they said, “We’re needy!”
Without even checking into it, I told them fine, we’d help them out too.
I should have known that since they were part of the Toronto District School Board, they couldn’t be *that* needy!
The kids were definitely needy but the library, though small, looked fine to me.
What we ended up doing was providing novel sets they could use in the classroom to get these reluctant readers to read.
They were needy in terms of other schools but that’s just because they had lower numbers. Only 65-80 kids from grades k – 8.
My contribution was going to be a day of presentations and a set of my books–a total value of about $900. My nephew, niece and their friends contributed about $1500 worth of books.
When I got there though, it was surprising to see a smart board in the library!
After this experience we tried to find another Native school who could use some help augmenting their library. I made a lot of calls, but was surprised to find my inquiries were met with a lot of suspicion.
I’m not sure why. If it was after they knew I was Muslim, I’d have chalked it up to that, but it was often before. And the thing is I sound very Canadian on the phone!
I finally got hold of an excellent librarian from Gananoque, up near Cornwall, but she was honest enough to tell me that her school was probably similar to the Toronto one in terms of ‘neediness’. I really appreciated her honesty!
I’d still like to do this project in another Native school. Hopefully somewhere up north where they really don’t have much in terms of facilities. So if anyone knows of any really needy Native schools, please email me and we’ll see what we can do. I’m sure my nephew and niece would like to help. That’s just the kind of kids they are!
But anyway, here are the pics from that project:
http://www.rukhsanakhan.com/photogallery/NativeSchoolLibraryproject2010/
And last but not least, here are the photos of the tour that I did in 2009 when I attended Wordfest in Calgary and the Vancouver Writer’s Festival.
http://www.rukhsanakhan.com/photogallery/CalgaryVancouverandPrinceRupert2009/
It looks like I’ll probably be going to London, England for the Muslim Writer’s Award ceremony on Nov. 22nd. How could I miss such an honour?!
If any schools in London would like to book me for a school visit, please email me and we’ll work something out.
Can’t say when I’ll be in that neck of the woods again!
Search
Categories
Archives
- August 2021
- March 2021
- December 2020
- October 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- November 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
2 Responses
Patricia Tilton
01|Oct|2011 1Love that you updated your photo album. Great idea to help upgrade local Native school libraries, but it didn’t sound like they were as needy as you hoped. There have to be schools that NEED books — I know there are here in the states.
A friend who attended your talk at the SCBWI conference, had been in Laos and just before the conference. And, she discovered after she left, that there was a small publisher near her hotel that sponsors book parties. Apparently there are no books for the poor and few libraries. So you can donate money to the U.S. based company, and they provide book parties all over the country giving away books in the native language. Diane (from New Zealand) did a blog on her discovery: http://www.patientdreamer.com.
Target (big store in the U.S.) is very involved in children’s literacy. My mentor and editor, Emma Walton Hamilton, and her mother, Julie Andrews, are very involved in this project. You may check out similar stores in Canada. If you do this again, you may try to look in other places for advice.
Your comment block is off on your last post and I can’t respond. (My computer was down for a week, so I have been shut off from everyone, and I kind of enjoyed it.) You know what I like most about you, is that you speak what’s on your mind — uncensored. But, for someone like me who is unpublished, it is discouraging to know how unsupported you are and that pop-culture is more important. I agree, what really matters is writing a very good book. I spent many years as a journalist and waited until later in life to start writing for children — I just want to write a good book and see it published. Unfortunately, I may have had some success in the 70s-80s-90s, but my path was different at the time. There are a few agents/editros who are very nurturing and who are really interested in a relationship with their clients — but there numbers are few.
How exciting to travel to London in late November. You need to be more proactive. I would ask the award planners about schools. They will be dealing with press. Is that when you will find out if your book won? Are there any private Muslim Schools in London? I may be able to ask a British friend who is a teacher/librarian to see what she recommends.
Sorry didn’t mean to write a book.
Pat
Rukhsana Khan
02|Oct|2011 2Hi Pat,
There are schools that need books up here in Canada as well, I just need to find them.
I love the idea of the book parties in Laos!
The only problem is that you don’t want to cheapen your work either and I do think that some schools that are really not that needy, might indeed take advantage of the situation.
I’m so glad that Julie Andrews and her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton are involved in that project!
Sorry about my comment block being off.
Thank you so much for the kind words. I try to be uncensored, but actually I am careful about what I post. I try not to put anything out there that I would not be comfortable having on the front page of a newspaper.
The people at the Native school definitely felt needy, and their students certainly qualified!
As for being unsupported, I really shouldn’t complain.
I do feel that eventually people will notice–and really that has happened!
I have been sending out feelers and yes, I’ve asked the people at the award ceremony too for contacts. It’s coming along, but it takes time. If you can ask your British friend, please, by all means do so.
Thank you so much for your kind words!
Rukhsana