Children's stories can be fun, silly, entertaining, important, and thought-provoking all within one book. In this episode Shifa and I discuss both her chapter book series and her middle grade novel in verse. She talks about how both can be used to create meaningful conversations with kids and how some topics are best approached through the pages of a story. 

Find author Shifa Saltagi Safadi
https://shifasafadi.com/
https://www.instagram.com/shifasaltagisafadi/
Amina Banana and the Formula for Friendship by Shifa Saltagi Safadi (Author), Aaliya Jaleel (Illustrator) https://www.amazon.com/Banana-Formula-Friendship-Saltagi-Safadi/dp/0593699149/
Amina Banana and the Formula for Making Money by Shifa Saltagi Safadi (Author), Aaliya Jaleel (Illustrator) https://www.amazon.com/Amina-Banana-Formula-Making-Money/dp/0593699181/
Kareem Between by Shifa Saltagi Safadi https://www.amazon.com/Kareem-Between-Shifa-Saltagi-Safadi/dp/0593699289/

Chapters
00:00 Meet children’s book author Shifa Saltagi Safadi
04:51 What are the Amina Banana books about? And the Formula for Friendship. And the Formula for Winning. And the Formula for making Money.
10:41 Amina Banana is a story for all people
12:22 How did Shifa decide on the themes for the “formulas” in the Amina Banana books?
17:00 Using Amina books to have  conversations with our kids
Normalize people’s lived experiences, like Amina with her hijab
19:59 Real experiences children have shared with Shifa about her books
22:18 How can adults use Amina Banana for their kids?
25:05 What is Kareem Between by Shifa Saltagi Safadi about? The benefits of novels in verse
29:50 What is next for author Shifa Saltagi Safadi?
31:11 Shifa’s book recommendation