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BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI
West Valley View Executive Editor
Amanda Malek-Ahmadi’s dream was to write a book.
She not only accomplished that with “10 Ballet Dancers,” but she was honored for it.
Malek-Ahmadi won a Silver Benjamin Franklin Award, which is presented by the Independent Book Publishers Association. The award for interior design represents one of the highest honors for small-press and independent publishing.
The book was published by Tolleson’s The Small-Tooth-Dog Publishing Group.
“Getting the news that ‘10 Ballet Dancers’ earned a Benjamin Franklin Award was an experience beyond words,” the Glendale resident said. “I look forward to seeing that silver stickers on the cover.
“I am so grateful that The SmallTooth-Dog Publishing Group took a chance on my debut picture book.”
The publisher, Sean Buvala, congratulated Malek-Ahmadi and illustrator Kathrine Gutkovskiy.
“They produced a book that has a lovely story for young children and gentle, inviting art,” he said. “We also had a terrifi c alliance with TLC Book Design out of Austin, Texas. Being recognized by the IBPA for this work affi rms the journey we are on. It gives us new energy as we continue to add to our current list of more than a dozen titles.
“We certainly wanted this project to be a showcase-level book that families would be proud to give as a gift and read with their kids. While it’s intended for everyone, families with young dancers will really appreciate the cute story and diverse characters.”
Malek-Ahmadi said she believes “10 Ballet Dancers” received accolades because it’s a countdown book. The book, which uses French terms, includes a glossary at the end that’s fun, educational and helpful.
“Another reason I believe it was recognized was thanks to the publishing team at The Small-Tooth-Dog Publishing Group and the design team at TLC,” Malek-Ahmadi added.
“They did an amazing job fi guring out the details, like the font style and size and where everything should be placed. TLC Book Designs also created an aesthetically pleasing glossary where they added the pictures from the book to the terms rather than there just being words on the
Ballet...continued on page 19 Amanda Malek-Ahmadi, who has a dance background, penned “10 Ballet Dancers” to introduce children to ballet and the French
language. (Photo courtesy of Amanda Malek-Ahmadi)
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19 Book explores boys’ converging stories
BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI
West Valley View Executive Editor
Joseph VanZutphen understands the plight of DACA families.
He fictionalized that experience and wrote “Child of Sonora,” which begins with a juxtaposition of the lives of two 7-year-old boys — one in present-day Scottsdale and the other a Tohono O’odham Nation member in 1848.
“Although each story illustrates the proverbial human pronouncement — that there is joy, sorrow and difficulty in life no matter the year or the landscape — the stories converge and provide a parallax view of Native Americans’ endemic struggle with the U.S. immigration process, both historically and today,” the Goodyear resident said.
“Child of Sonora” received the finalist award for e-book fiction from the 2020 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards.
In the book, 7-year-old Colby of Scottsdale loses his mother to a heart attack. Mel is not only his sole parent but his confidant and hero.
“Together, they regularly get absorbed in evening baseball on TV, which both distracts them from their grief and tightens their father-son bond,” VanZutphen said.
“However, Mel is also dousing his aching grief with alcohol, and, unknown to Mel, his precocious child is hurting deeply because of it. Mel owns a small landscaping company and owes his success, in part, to the reliable hard work of his crew of three. One afternoon Alfonso ‘Poncho’ Marquez, his foreman, receives a deportation notice after his arrest for felony possession of a hash pipe, and this sets into motion a legal defense based on suspicion that the pipe was planted, but more important is the constitutional argument that Poncho’s rights as a DACA recipient are not equal to other legal residents.”
That’s when Mel and Colby get involved in helping Poncho fight the dubious pipe discovery and the injustice of the legal system.
In the Tohono O’odham, a 7-year-old boy loses his parents to a massacre of his village by renegades from the U.S. Volunteer Army in 1848. He is picked up by regular Army soldiers and taken to a mission in the Gila Valley where he is made to learn the white man’s ways.
“This tragic usurpation of his tribal ways leads to his lifelong mission to redeem his ancient customs and pass them to future generations,” VanZutphen said.
“Each of these succeeding generations has its own struggles with acceptance and injustice as 175 years of discrimination reaches all the way to the present day,” he said.
VanZutphen understands problems with immigration. His son married a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) recipient in 2016.
“I never paid attention to DACA,” he
Ballet...continued from page 18
page. I also believe that Kathrine’s gorgeous illustrations greatly contributed to (the book’s) recognition.”
Malek-Ahmadi said she enjoys hearing stories about parents trying to pronounce the French words.
“It’s great for children to see parents struggling with those words,” she said. “Plus, we got the attention of Dance Teacher Magazine. One of the editors featured it and talked about how it’s a great book to use in the classroom.”
Malek-Ahmadi studied French in school and from a seventh grade exchange student.
“She and I became really great friends,” she said. “She is the godmother to my second son. We’re still in communication through WhatsApp. I call her and practice my French.”
Malek-Ahmadi started dancing “in the womb.” One of her “coolest memories” is dancing with her teacher in the 1980s wearing a black leotard, tights and ribbons streaming down all over the outfits.
A Scottsdale native, Malek-Ahmadi attended Desert Mountain High School and UA for college. For three years, she lived in Florida, where she danced for Busch Gardens.
“It was such a wonderful, memorable experience,” she said. “I moved back here and found our home in Glendale. It’s been really enjoyable.”
said. “Then I learned about the trials and tribulations of it, like the fear of going to the supermarket and having the police show up.
“It’s so sad to hear that. The main person in my book is a DACA recipient who’s 27 years old who is pulled over. The book goes on with that and his fight against it.”
The 252-page “Child of Sonora” is VanZutphen’s first book. He was an English major in college and then worked as a reporter and English teacher. In 2016, when he was semiretired, he considered writing a book. He’s working on a second one now and eyeballing a third.
“‘Child of Sonora’ gives important Goodyear resident Joseph VanZutphen wrote insight into Native Americans and “Child of Sonora” after seeing what his daughthe DACA predicament,” he said. “Generations of Native Americans ter-in-law endured. She is a DACA recipient. (Photo by Pablo Robles) throughout the U.S. are affected by DACA because their Native American “Child of Sonora” by parents, grandparents or great-grandpar- Joseph VanZutphenents ventured from the U.S. to Mexico https://amzn.to/3izpOTNand then could not come back legally.”
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ANSWERS ON PAGE 23
King Crossword
ACROSS
1 Lingo 6 Slopes regular 12 Tenant 13 Sheathe 14 Schedules 15 Pumpkin relatives 16 Appointment 17 Spring meltdown 19 Cooking fuel 20 Libertine 22 Poseidon’s home 24 Satisfied sigh 27 La Scala solo 29 Fine spray 32 Fruity rum cocktail 35 Author Wiesel 36 Eve’s third son 37 That girl 38 “Awesome, dude!” 40 Pop 42 Trojans’ sch. 44 Org. 46 Forget-me- -- (flowers) 50 Paris art museum 52 Athlete’s woe 54 Tempt 55 Point maker 56 Op-ed pieces 57 Dwelling
DOWN
1 Actress Ward 2 Aspiring atty.’s exam 3 Fall bloom 4 Formerly called 5 Hand signals 6 Video game giant 7 Recognizes 8 Hosp. section 9 Haggles 10 Fed. food inspector 11 GI dining hall 12 Leary’s drug 18 Patty Hearst, for one 21 Feed-bag morsel 23 Outback bird 24 Mimic 25 100 percent 26 Barber’s offerings 28 Flabbergast 30 Learning ctr. 31 Common title start 33 Museum-funding org. 34 Prof’s degree 39 “Pride and Prejudice” suitor 41 Pear variety 42 Peter Fonda’s beekeeper role 43 Male deliveries? 45 Beholds 47 Partially mine 48 Genealogy chart 49 Neighbor of Leb. 51 By way of 53 Sgt., e.g.
by Linda Thistle
The idea of Go Figure is to arrive at the figures given at the bottom and right-hand columns of the diagram by following the arithmetic signs in the order they are given (that is, from left to right and top to bottom). Use only the numbers below the diagram to complete its blank squares and use each of the nine numbers only once.
DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK H H
H Moderate HH Challenging HHH HOO BOY!
Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each small 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.
DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK H H
H Moderate HH Challenging HHH HOO BOY!
EVEN EXCHANGE
by Donna Pettman
Each numbered row contains two clues and two answers. The two answers differ from each other by only one letter, which has already been inserted. For example, if you exchange the A from MASTER for an I, you get MISTER. Do not change the order of the letters.
SCRAMBLERS
Unscramble the letters within each rectangle to form four ordinary words. Then rearrange the boxed letters to form the mystery word, which will complete the gag!
