Spring Break (?)

So it's been Spring Break since Saturday and what have I done. Well, here was my checklist when I started the break:

1. Physics HW and reading
2. Physics reading and lab
3. Write med school essay and print photo for Health Professions Recommendation Committee
4. Study for Physics Test on 3/22
   
5. Write Victorian Lit essay (on the Mill on the Floss) due 3/24
   
6. Nutrition Assignment due 4/1
   
7. Study for Nutrition Exam starts 4/2
   
8. Write Children's Lit essay (on The Persian Cinderella) due 4/7
   
9. Write Psych Paper due 4/8

So I've done numbers 1-7!! Yay! Now I just have to write my children's lit essay and my psych paper. Good deal. My strategy was to finish all my assignments up to the MCAT so that I would be free to study. So the whole Persian Cinderella thing happened because I was sitting in my children's lit class and we were talking about minority representation in picture books (at my school when they talk about minority anything, they mean African-Americans). So we had a couple of African-American students in the class saying, Yeah we were never in picture books. But the thing was, we were reading 8 picture books in class that featured African-Americans, esp. children: Corduroy, Meet Addy, Uncle Jed's Barbershop, Ben's Trumpet, Snowy day, Amazing Grace, etc. So obviously, as a group they are represented in picture books. So I was talking about one aspect of one of the books and said in the middle of something, "There are no picture books about Iranian-American children, so I really never saw myself in picture books growing up." My professor said, "Oh, I think there are books about Iranian-Amer's and you should look them up on Amazon. I was planning on telling y'all later, but your next paper topic is to critique a picture book. I want YOU to write your paper on an Iranian-American picture book." I told her that they are all Arabian Nights tales, not about American children of Iranian heritage, but she told me to do my paper on it anyway and just address that in the essay.

Thus, I got the most popular picture book regarding Persian culture, The Persian Cinderella. Why? Because there are no picture books about Iranian-American children! Here's a link to all Persian/Iranian related picture books. I searched for hours and all the books have a common theme that they take place in medieval Persia after the retreat of the Arabs but before the Mongolian invasion (roughly 9th century) and there are princesses/genies/thieves AKA Arabian Nights stories. They aren't about the lives of Iranian children growing up in America and what that means like books about Hispanic or Asian-American or African-American children. There are lots of memoirs about this (Funny in Farsi for example), but not picture books or books intended for children. Researching and going through all this makes me think that I should write a children's book for Iranian-American kids. Why not? This will be a great work-in-progress for me.