FREE WEBINAR: A Heart That Smiles

During a recent trip to Toronto, I was delighted to meet a young teacher and writer named Komathy Caandeepan. Her two books for children, Silences and Strings of Love, moved me deeply, and I’ve wanted to interview her ever since.

I’m particularly excited to explore with her how books for children can be an important part of the work of healing from the historical and cultural ruptures that have become all too common in our days.

The star of both of her books is a young Tamil Canadian named Thamarai. Because of the civil war in Sri Lanka, Thamarai and her family move to Toronto, where Thamarai has to make sense of a new and unfamiliar world.

Each step in feeling more at home in Canada, delightfully and paradoxically, is also a step in feeling more at home in herself and coming to understand the real meaning of her roots.

Komathy's work shows us how healing can be as playful as it is profound, and as gentle as it is lasting.

She's a delightful person and I'm very honored to have her as a guest for my upcoming free webinar. During our hour together, she will share the story of how she came to write her books, read from one of them, and answer whatever questions you may have about her work.

Please join us, and don’t hesitate to invite anyone else you think might be interested.

You’ll gain:

• A perspective on how books for children can help heal the child we may be carrying in our own heart.
• An example of what children have to teach us about being fully present to the world in all its contradictions.
• Three of my own insights into the power of stories for children in both English and Tamil literature.