A Girl Who Looks Like Me with Susan Muaddi Darraj

This week’s Story Seeds collaboration brings together 12 year old Sulaf and Susan Muaddi Darraj (author of the new middle grade series Farah Rocks  and a 2014 AWP Grace Paley Award, 2016 American Book Award, and 2016 Arab American Book Award winner)  on a field trip to the Riverside Theater in New York City. 

Susan helps Sulaf grow this story idea:

A young girl who lives in New York City and works in the theater district realizes there is a very dark secret hidden at the show she's working on. 

Follow Sulaf and Susan's thrill-filled Story Seeds adventure with host Betsy Bird as:

• Sulaf tells Susan her wish of seeing a story about an Arab-American girl who looks like her and represents not only her cultural background but her love of the theatre too
• They talk about the Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop's metaphor on  how children's books should be  be mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors for readers
• They geek out over their mutual love of Agatha Christie mysteries and Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven
• They grow a story inspired by their back stage tour of the Riverside Theater

The episode concludes with this week’s storytime (17:40) where Susan reads the story she grew from Sulaf’s story seed: Mystery at the Theatre

Books and media mentioned in this episode: Farah Rocks series by Susan Muaddi Darraj, And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, and The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. 

Musicals and Plays: The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and  The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe.

Calls to Action

Bonus Episode: Check back next week to hear Betsy's interview with Susan where you'll get to find out whodunnit!

Kids: Call The Story Seeds Hotline at 646-389-5153, email us at [e-mail], or visit our website to submit your story ideas. You can also join The Story Seeds Society, our kids listeners club.

Grownups: Visit www.storyseedspodcast.com for subscription links, to sign up for our newsletter, and to download our printable activity e-zines for your kids (or the  kid in you!) that offer opportunities to read, write, and get creative alongside listening to each episode . You can also follow us on Instagram @storyseedspod, on Twitter @litsafarimedia, and on Facebook @literarysafari. 

Get our Imagination Lab: Experiments in Creativity activity book! It pairs perfectly with the podcast and features tons of episode-inspired prompts and projects! Order your copy here!

This episode is also available on YouTube. Subscribe here. 

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Show credits

Produced and written by Kayla Fedeson, Sandhya Nankani, and Anjali Sakhrani. Scoring, mixing, and sound design by Ania Grzesik and Matt Boynton of Ultraviolet Audio. Field audio recorded by James Boo. Hosted by Betsy Bird. Music by Andrew VanWyngarden, Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter/musician and co-founder of MGMT. 

The Story Seeds Podcast is a creation and production of Literary Safari 

www.literarysafari.com