An interview with Zeinab Sodachi

True Stories of True Men

February 8, 2023 - 18:4

The author Zeinab Sodachi is an amazing author who writes for children and adolescents. 

She announced the publication of two more volumes of the "True Stories of True Men" book series and said that "The Bicycle" and "The Strange Sleep" books are the 7th and 8th volumes of this series. 

She added that "The Bicycle" is a story about martyr Ali Ghorbani, while "The Strange Dream" narrates the true story of Ahmad Ali Niri for children.

“Our goal with this series was to write stories in prose that children aged 7-8 could understand without being bored, and with appealing illustrations that would accompany the stories,” said the author.

In reference to the book's two concluding chapters, which have the titles "Philosophical" and "Intelligent," Sodachi said that they were added so that children would reflect on the material and pose questions after finishing the book. There are also ideas in the Intelligent chapter for the book's parental aims to be more effectively achieved.

“Children's sacrifice and forgiving spirits are bolstered by the story about the martyr Ali Ghorbani in the book "The Bicycle," and we aim to portray this in each of these books by retelling memories of martyrs that highlight a particular trait. Since we've transformed a true experience into a tale and a book, we gave the collection the name True Stories of True Men,” said Zeinab Sodachi.

The author said that real stories usually have a bigger influence on children. It is more credible for youngsters to realize that they are reading the story of someone real, who grew up in the same country and community as well.

She mentioned a different problem, saying: We want kids to be book readers, and it's a weakness that today's kids don't read books, but they won't become book readers at any price! In addition to introducing role models to kids, translated novels force kids to adopt the western culture, which has nothing to do with our Iranian and Islamic values.

Unfortunately, the issue of translated children's books and the dissemination of Western culture is ignored, and while its negative effects are not yet evident, we shall observe them in the years to come as our children begin to read more widely.

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