WOW Reads: S2, E3 - MSRAP Reads The Kingdom Over the Sea by Zohra Nabi

Join the Worlds of Words Center Middle School Reading Ambassadors (MSRAP) as we discuss The Kingdom Over the Sea by Zohra Nabi.

We tested out some new podcasting equipment, so our sound levels aren't that great. You may want to adjust your volume as you listen.

In this episode, we discuss how we came to read both the U.K. and U.S. versions, the differences we noticed, and how the versions might affect the reader's experiences. We share our perspectives on how children (real and fictional) can be impacted by an adult's choice to withhold information that could potentially impact their lives. We consider identity, belonging, and home. Finally, we recall our conversation with Zohra around finding story inspiration and how to write that story.

Books mentioned in this episode:
The Aru Shah series by Roshani Chokshi
The City Beyond the Stars, by Zohra Nabi

We invite anyone who is able to attend the Tucson Festival of Books on March 9 & 10, 2024.

This podcast was recorded in the Digital Innovation and Learning Lab (DIALL) in the UArizona College of Education with assistance from the UA COE Tech Team.

Producer/Host: Rebecca Ballenger, Worlds of Words Center Associate Director
Audio Engineer: Liam Arias, Student Employee and Radio, TV, Film Major
Coordinator: Vianey Torres, Student Employee and Nursing Major

Reading Ambassador Adviser:
Samantha Montes, Graduate Assistant

For more information on the Worlds of Words Middle School Reading Ambassadors (MSRAP), visit wowlit.org.

We Can Promote Global Literature Together!

The Worlds of Words Reading Ambassador program is completely free for participants who receive a book for themselves and a book to share with their school librarian, ELA/English teacher, or other school entity. If you would like to support this program, please make a gift on-line through the University of Arizona Foundation.

Thank you for listening and keep reading!

Transcript

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 dialog around global literature so that children can reflect on their own cultural experiences and connect to the experiences of children across the globe. The WOW Reads podcast centers voices of young readers around the books written for them.

Today we are talking to the middle school, reading ambassadors, Middle School Reading Ambassador Initiative off- offers middle school students a college experience within the University of Arizona College of Education, that focuses on books for middle school aged readers. Ambassadors learn about adolescent literature under the direction of faculty and staff with expertise in children's literature, education, library, science, and marketing. We respectfully acknowledge 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 home to the O’odham and Yaqui. Committed to the diversity and inclusion, the university strives to build sustainable relationships with sovereign native nations and indigenous communities through educational offerings, partnerships and community service. Zohra Nabi grew up inventing stories for two younger sisters. She studied law at Cambridge and Oxford University but secretly dreamed of being an author.

Now she lives in London. Browsing bookshops, and providing magical adventures. Kingdom Over The Sea is her first book. When Yara’s mom passes away, she leaves behind a letter with a set of strange instructions. If Yara wants to know the truth about her past, she must travel to the Zahaira a place that isn't on any map. A city of sorcerers, alchemists and magic.

But Zahaira is not what it used to be. Magic has been outlawed, and the Sultan is plotting sinister scheme that threatens the lives of the people who wield it. As the secrets of Yara’s past unfold, can she help her new friends and find a place in this magical world? I don't know. Can she? So today we're talking about Kingdom Over the Sea by Zohra Nabi with our middle school reading Ambassadors.

My name is Rebecca Ballenger. I am the associate director for Worlds of Words. And also, I get to work with these fabulous young people. Let's all introduce ourselves. Hi, I'm Gabriel. I like food. My name is Krish, and I like playing in my school's band. My name is Emiline, and I like traveling, baking and reading. My name's Elliot.

I like to read. And I also love my... My name is Quinn, and I- My one of my favorite book series is called Scythe. Hi, My name is Charlotte, and I enjoy doing artwork, reading and traveling.

Great. So we just got to meet Zohra. What was that like for you? For me, I've got to say, it's pretty revealing.

It was quite eye opening because I had a lot of questions about the book. It was very cool to meet the author because she I got to hear her opinions on what the book was about and like her experience is that she put into the book. I found it kind of interesting because I haven't there's like been one other time that I've been able to talk to an author about the book that they've written.

So I found it kind of exciting to like learn about kind of the behind the scenes of making this book. I honestly found it fascinating and it answered a lot of my questions. I always really enjoy meeting the author of the story because it brings a new expecting or sorry a new experience to the book that you might not have had the first time reading it.

It also brings new ideas. And this this author meet in particular was really interesting because this was my first time meeting an author from another country. Our author was in London, so yeah. So I'm going to go off topic real quick and I'm going to mention that when we ordered our books for this round of books, we round of reading.

We inadvertently got a UK version. And then when I had to order all the supplemental books, we got the U.S. version. Anybody want to mention some of the things we noticed? we noticed that for when some of the characters were casting spells that the font size and just like the font was different from in the U.K., it was only one spell.

But in the I mean, the U.S., it was only one spell. But the U.K. had every O every spell was like had a different font and the sizes would vary depending on how confident the sorcerer was. And like, it was kind of interesting to see, like, how that was different. But we noticed changes in spelling because like they were saying ‘Yoghurt’ for some of the recipes, like for some of what they were eating.

But it is spelled differently in the U.K. than we have it in the U.S. Some of the words were like different because like sometimes like in the U.K., like they used different words for certain things. And I know that in the very beginning when they were talking about, like, you're in her mom's apartment, they said their ‘flat’. So let me ask you this, U.K. if you were get to if you could choose a version to hand to a friend or to give out as a holiday gift, which version would you give it once?

UK. It was it was a lot. I really enjoyed the U.K. version, particularly because of the spells. They're in this kind of really beautiful kind of cursive font. Instead of the normal font books are in. And I think it was mentioned before that the font like increased in size based on the confidence of the spell caster. So if it was the spell caster was kind of unsure or not really confident within themselves, the font was smaller and kind of less dramatic, but especially towards the end.

The font is really big and it's really dramatic. And this actually came up with the author and this kind of poetry that the spells are in is based off of the time period that the book was based off of, which I found really interesting, and it was a great insight. Yeah, I definitely think like because in the U.S. version, also the pictures were after every single chapter, but but in the U.K. version, instead, it would like put it where the pictures were needed and like.

So it would kind of add more to the story and like the kind of feeling or experience you felt. Also with the pictures in the U.K. version, it had like a border around it, but in the U.S. version, it would bleed like off of the page. So some some differences in the design as well as like some things that would affect how you actually read this story.

Well, let's get into it. So this book starts out with our main character, Yara, kind of realizing that there have been some big things that happened in her life, in her mother's life, and nobody really talked to her about that. How do you talk a little bit about how you saw Yara in that moment and also how you think adults can talk to people your age about these big issues?

I feel like it's better to just like tell people what's going on because they'll just feel in the dark and it makes them more unsure and like they create things that could happen and that just makes them more worried and they start like going all over the place. But if you just tell them what's going on, they have a better understanding of our world than like what is actually going on.

Stuff like that. On one hand, giving them more information, not keeping them in the dark is is pretty good because they need to know, you know, what would happen during their lifetime. But you need to put it in a way that they can understand it or maybe deliver a bit by bit because sometimes it can hit hard. Yeah, I agree with both of you have said. I'd just like to connect with keeping people in the dark.

It reminds me of a book I read where the characters had like a bunch of these big secrets that would have helped the group to know, but they just kept it hidden. And I was like internally yelling at them, just like it would be so much easier if you just told everyone. But I also understand that sometimes the people have gone through some really hard and frightening stuff that have has left some long lasting trauma, and sometimes that's really hard to bring back up and you have to bring it back up to tell someone.

So I understand how that could be a little challenging, but if it's like a bad experience and if it's kind of like, I guess something that could happen again and they need to be informed about it, sometimes people don't want to bring it up because it would sound too like dramatic or like, harder to do if they had to do it.

But also if people are younger, like, adults may think like kids are ready for hearing this kind of thing or they're not mature enough or they're not going to understand. But there's also a possibility. What if we do? So what I'm hearing is maybe in real life, adults can try to broach these subjects with young people, but it makes a great book convention and like a thing to do in books as a way to move things forward.

And so connection and identity was a big part of this of this story. Can. Krish, do you want to talk a little bit about where Yara was at the beginning, sort of and where she came at the end with regards to connection both to people and her culture? Yara was living in Bournemouth, England at the beginning of the story.

As she progressed through the story, though, she ended up going to Zahaira which is almost like a completely different world. And she was alone in the beginning. Was she alone in Zahaira? At the beginning, she was alone because her mother, I think she mysteriously disappeared and left a cryptic note. So telling her to go somewhere. And then when she went there, she started to discover more about her past and her mother's past.

I believe it was like she went to the hospital or something. But yeah, it progressed that the story with her meeting different people and maybe not trusting all of them, but like she had nowhere else to be and trying to make people believe that she belonged where she was and trying to convince herself that she belonged where she was.

Also kind of she did feel different in the in England because nobody else spoke her language. She just felt kind of alone. And I think throughout the story, she kind of just needed some buddy or something to say, like, you belong here and you should stay because people want you and you're not going to be a burden to them.

And I definitely think she, like was in the city and she was kind of like wandering around. She she kind of like she was scared. And because, like, she knew no one, she didn't know this, like, strange place that she was in. And then when she found Miriam and like Minerva said that she wanted her to stay because she was like a big help around the shop.

It definitely helped, like her journey and like figuring out who she was and like that. People were actually, like, wanting her and like, not going to just like, like throw her out because, like, I know that like she was about to go to a foster home and like, that's very scary. Yeah. Something that especially came up with our discussion with the author was the fact that Yara really, like, wanted a place where she could belong.

And she at first when she at the beginning of the book, when she was in London, her mother had just passed away. She was kind of lost in the world. And she was about to go to this foster family, which would have meant giving up her culture. She was she and her mother were the only people who spoke the certain language.

And while there were other people who were had similar stories to them, they weren't like the same. And when she arrived in Zahaira she again, she was kind of like this outsider. She had no idea what she was doing. She was in this strange place. No one knew her and she didn't know anyone. And she she by the end of the book, she definitely found her place.


And it was a really beautiful story. in my opinion, it sounds like she was sort of like entering her pasts like a brief memory and she sort of, like, unraveled it slowly too. So she finally found out, like the whole most of the story and found out where she belonged. One of my favorite turns of phrase in our meeting with Zora was when she talked about home as fragile, like what Gabriel was saying about, like, how it was unraveling.

Like it unravels through the story, and then she finally ends up finding where she belongs at the end, too. No, she. She, like, means something to people. And she's not just going to be there because she needs a place to be. They actually want her to be there. What you said about the fragile part of home, the that especially with the context of and in a sorry immigrant family home, that new home is often very fragile and can often fall apart very easily.

Another thing that we learned about was, how Yara at the beginning, she didn't really want to. She wanted to be the one that wanted her. And so she didn't want to have to go to, like, live with, like, social workers because that had like, an obligation to help her. Not just an obligation, but also not a connection to that culture.

Yeah, it sort of felt like they wanted to help her. But when she mentioned like Leila Katoon and her mom, it's like she was she was is a haven, but not really one. It was like she was half and half. Okay. Let's switch gears here a little bit. And another focus of our meeting was, the writing. What the the experiences that Zohra had in her life and in her career that helped her with writing.

Would anybody like to talk to that? Speak to that. So, like I mentioned, when we were like about the author that she was studying law, and it turned out that that really helped her and her book because she said in law, you have to be really precise with what you say, like you have to if like the judge senses that you're hiding something or that you're like not telling the full truth and like, they'll pounce on that.

So you have to, like, explain things in your book and get like it helped to give good reasoning for what was happening because she had to and when she was studying law. Yeah, and more on that. Like she also I think she also mentioned a lot about how not only did you have to be like precise, you also kind of have to paint a story for like them to, like, believe what you're saying and believe your side of the case.

And so that definitely helps out with like storytelling. Yeah, I really I really found when Zohra mentioned that in law you have to read a lot of cases and those cases are kind of like stories and stories of people who kind of need help. I think that might have kind of influenced the book a little bit. Like some of those stories, maybe like an immigrant legal case, could have influenced the this story.

And it's really just really incredible to see a book with such representation of that life of an immigrant in this, especially in this time in the world. So I did find it interesting that Zora it sounded to me like she does wills and trusts the fiduciary kinds of law and that within that branch of law, she is still finding really good stories.

And she and I'm not sure which one of you mentioned it, but when she was talking about how you have to be so precise for a judge, you can't leave anything out because that judge is going to catch you on it. That was line. The judge is going to catch you on it and and question you there because they think you're hiding something and that sometimes you can get away with that in fantasy, but you can't get away with it.

And in fantasy for young people. So it's like kind of with the story. The author doesn't exactly do that because she's not like she's not like in a courtroom or anything. She's kind of like she gets to choose on how it's going to play out. So she decides on maybe it's not going to be so detailed more as it's going to be a bit more vague.

So she has to balance it. She has to elaborate on the details without giving unnecessary information. Great. Okay. Any last comments? It's time for us to wrap up. Gabriel Well, does this book has some connections to a similar book? Aru Shah? Aru Shah yeah was actually the middle school reading ambassador's first ever book, and Quinn was there. And that author's coming for the Tucson Festival of Books in March.

So you can get your book signed. Yes. Quinn finally. I remember last time she couldn't come because, like, I don't know, something happened. Something came up. And so I'm actually kind of excited to get my book signed. Yeah, I've. I really enjoyed the series. I've read the first three books and I'm really excited. And I'm also really excited because I've read the whole series and I have like three of the books out of the five.

I've read two of the books. Both of them have interesting plot and various funny jokes sprinkled with them. Okay, so here's something that we might also want to put on our reading list. City Beyond the Stars is Book two in the Kingdom over the Sea series. Is that something that you guys think you'll pick up? Yes. All right.

Excellent. Okay. So our next meeting actually will be around Donna Barbara Higuera and the book, Alebrijes. And we are going to invite you to join us at the Tucson Festival of Books on March 9th and 10th. If that's not right, maybe Liam can help us out with getting that correct and then podcast and I would like to thank Liam Arias, who is our engineering sound engineer, Vianey, who keeps us all connected Samantha who leads our lit discussions, and the COE Tech team who helped us zoom with Zohra and also helps us record this podcast in the Digital Innovation and Learning Lab here in the University of Arizona College of Education.