Hello and welcome to the Worlds of Words podcast, Wow Reads. The Worlds Of Words Center of global literacies and literatures is committed to creating an international network of people who share the vision of bringing books and children together, thereby opening windows on the world. We encourage thoughtful dialogue around global literatures so that children can reflect on their own cultural experiences and connect to the experiences of children across the globe.
Today we are with the middle school reading ambassadors. The Worlds of Words, center of Global Literacies and Literature's Middle School Reading Ambassador Initiative offers middle school students a college experience within the University of Arizona College of Education that focuses on books for middle schoolers.
Ambassadors learn about young adult literature under the direction of faculty and staff with expertise in children's literature, education, library science, and marketing. We respectfully acknowledge that the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of indigenous peoples. Today, Arizona is home to 22 federally recognized tribes.
With Tucson being the home to the O’Odham and the Yaqui. Committed to diversity and inclusion, the university strives to build sustainable relationships with sovereign native nations and indigenous communities through education offerings, partnerships, and community service. Today we are discussing the book, The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams by Daniel Nayeri.
In the book, the book follows character Monkey, he said something to the monks in his village that offended them and they tried to kill him. Luckily, a merchant named Samir came to his aid and bought him for six bulks of silk, but Samir is not an honest man. He is a conman and he tells made up stories to get his buyers to buy his products.
When, when Samir's customers get fed up with his cheating, they decide to hire six assassins to kill him. Monkey helps protect Samir from the assassins. Each time he can kill one assassin and protect Samir he earns the cost back of one of the six bulks of silk that Samir used to buy him. Will Monkey be able to protect Samir and regain his freedom?
I don't know, will he? Let's talk about it. Let's start with a round of introductions. We'll start with me. My name is Rebecca. My name is Renee. I'm Sarah. I'm Nia. I'm Quinn. I'm Minerva. And I'm Sophie. Hey, welcome everybody. Um, this is an exciting podcast for me because frankly, I love this book and I really enjoyed meeting this author.
I'm curious to know, what is the one thing that you would share about this book with one of your friends?
Well, I think some of the things that Samir ended up doing to people who would buy his products was, well, the way he was cheating. Like if he wanted something to weigh more so it would have more value, he'd put more sand in it from the desert. So it would, so it would look like it was worth more than it actually was.
You think that was very ethical? Well, not to the person who bought the product, but, uh, as, but to, um, him. Not in the end though. It could be pretty comical though sometimes. Yes.
I like the fact that he was really kind of a fake-it-till-you-make-it kind of guy. He pretty much just walked around and said things until they eventually started to make sense, which is just an interesting lifestyle to me. Do you know anyone like this? My first response would be me, but not entirely.
So cuz I don't really scam people yet. No, but you are per, you're persuasive, Renee. That is true. I can agree. Anyone else? What is the salient factor for you when you read this book? Something that really stuck with you? One of the, there was this quote that really stuck with me, that Monkey said. It was to everyone we love,
we give a knife. I don't exactly know why it stood out to me, but it really resonated.
I liked the way that, um, the assassins just came out during the book and how the different ways that Monkey had to try and protect Samir. It was really interesting to, to read about all the things that Monkey had to do to try and win back his freedom from Samir. I did not have a lot of experience, Uh, or prior knowledge about the Silk road.
I had some, but this book really challenged, um, a lot of my thinking around that period of history. I wanna know, why don't you start us off, Sophie. What did you learn about the Silk Road from this book, or the characters, or the time period? I also did not know much about the Silk Road, but when he came I learned a ton about it.
Yeah, so we got to talk to him at the Tucson Festival of Books. Does anybody want to talk about what that experience was like moderating his, uh, session? It was a very enjoyable and like remarkable experience. Like every question we asked Nayeri would go on. Like he would talk to us a ton about the topic and he was super energetic and yeah, it was just a really fun time and yeah.
I would go as far to say. He's even a bit like Samir. Any question we asked him, he would spin out like a 20 minute long story about it. A few twists and turns, which is really just shows a lot about him and his story writing cuz it's exactly what he used. He's just retelling his story in his own everyday words.
I think he was always ready with an answer. Whenever we asked a question, he, it just like popped into his head and he just said the words out loud and it was really fun and enjoyable just to hear him rant about really cool things that sometimes involve the book, sometimes involved his personal life.
Sometimes they’re just really interesting to learn from. This person, the author. It was really cool. Yeah, he had a lot to say to anything that we asked him and even just conversation. I remember when I was volunteering at one of the booths, he came up and it somehow turned from where you're supposed to go for the author confrontation to different, like doing yoga, and he showed us some of the poses.
Actually. It was really cool. Yeah. Renee, you got to be his host. What was that like? I did, I kind of just, so I went and found him. That took a little while actually somehow, and as soon as I did our first conversation was not about writing, not about his book, but cooking because my name matches up with a different, like, I'm not gonna go into detail about it cause I take forever, but a different cook.
So that was the subject of our conversation, just cooking. And I thought that was really interesting cuz he didn't just launch straight into his work. And just everything that he does, he wants to get to know you first. So yeah, I think he was a lot of fun, Sara. He was a ton of fun. Going back to what Quinn was saying about the booth, I just, I met him one time for a few seconds and introduced myself, and I remember the day.
Passed and he came back by the booth and he said, hi, Sara. And I was like, oh my gosh, this author remembers my name. And you could just tell that, um, in our session too, he connected with the audience and we had a lot of people from the public in that session, and he, it was just for a whole hour, he was taking questions and people, people were on the edge of their seats wanting to ask questions and hear more about his experience because he made.
I think he could take, you know, any, any object and make a great story out of it or any situation, make a great story out of it. Um, a thing that I really, he clearly did a ton of research about the Silk Road and he included a glossary in the back of the book, um, with terms that were really helpful as well.
So, any final thoughts or reflections?
I will say that even though Samir is um, a bit of a storyteller and extravagant and can be a cheat, um, he was a very likable character. He definitely was. Yeah, I liked him a lot too. He was a lot of fun. Okay, so thank you everyone for, um, Your contribution to our wonderful author event. This was one of the events that we had the most number of people come to, and you guys were champs, so I really want to, um, give you props for that too.
It's very nerve-wracking to be a moderator at the Tucson Festival of Books, especially in a standing room only room. Um, so that was awesome. I'd like to thank Liam Arias, our sound engineer. I'd like to thank Sara Logan, our lit discussant. I'd like to thank the Digital Innovation and Learning Lab (DIALL)l here at the University of Arizona College of Education.
Thank you so much.