 Salamu alaykum. Wa alaikum wa salam. Such beautiful faces, masha'Allah. Thank you for being here. My name is Maha and I wrote this book and it's called, The Land of Duni, Dean and Della's Discover. And I'll read from the first few chapters. So one of the first questions is, does anyone know what the name Dean means? So Dean actually means religion in Islam. Yeah, so faith or deem, I mean or religion. Okay. So I'm gonna start off here. So when you open the first page, it says this book belongs to. Do you know what you would write here in the blank space? Good. Yeah. And then here we have something called a table of contents. Does anyone know what that is? Yes. Excellent. You guys are all very smart, masha'Allah. Okay. So we're gonna start with chapter one, What a Dream. And if you pass the book around, you can take a look at the pictures. Whoa, what a dream. Or was it? Della never had a dream that felt this real before. She was unsure what to make of it. She had been in an enchanted land full of vibrant green grass, beautiful butterflies, and colorful flowers. One butterfly in particular had caught her attention. It had been bright blue in color and larger than Della. And it had spoken. She also remembered having held something shiny and bright in the palm of her hand. She no longer remembered what it was. A bit confused, Della decided to get dressed and head over to tell her best friend, Dean. I can't wait to tell Dean about my dream. I hope he's excited, especially when I tell him he was in the dream too. Yes. So Dean is the boy? Yes, so thank you actually. So Dean is the boy, Della is the girl, and Della loves to play outside in a tree house and play out in nature, and Dean loves to play video games. Okay, so that's, thank you. I wanted to mention that. And Dean and Della are about eight and nine years old, so close to your ages. Do you have a question? Oh, okay, that's okay. So I'll read through the chapters and then at the end we can ask questions. Sound good? Okay. I can't wait to tell Dean about my dream. I hope he's excited, especially when I tell him he was in the dream too. Normally, Dean would be excited to hear about her cool dream or any of Della's make-believe stories, but lately he had been distracted by his new video game that they no longer hung out like they used to. Dean had broken his arm a few months back, and Della understood that he would need time to rest at home. But now that his cast was off and he was completely healed, she did not expect him to still be glued to the TV playing his video games. Unsure of how he would react to her dream, Della hopped on her bike and pedaled as fast as she could to Dean's house. Once there, Della immediately knew where to find Dean, in the living room playing his... Right. There we have a picture of Della and Dean playing his video game. The color, the pictures are just in black and white. Only the cover is in color. Dean, you won't believe what just happened to me, Della exclaimed as she burst into the room. I had a dream where I was in a beautiful place with butterflies, flowers, bright green grass, and a shiny, well hello to you too, Dean said sarcastically, as he cut Della off. He did so without taking his eyes off of the TV. Dreams are fake. They're not even real, Dean said. They're not fake, Della protested. I'm telling you, it felt so real. Dean was clearly not interested in what Della had to say. Della was always coming up with weird stories. Not now, Dean replied rudely. I'm trying to beat the mud monster before he mutates. This wasn't the first time Dean had shrugged Della off since he'd gotten his new video game. Frustrated and discouraged, Della left Dean's house without saying another word. Della hopped back on her bike and slowly peddled home. My dream wasn't fake, she said. I just know it. Video games are fake. Even though she was so mad, Della only wanted her friend Dean back so they could play outside like they used to. Back in her room, Della decided to read from her favorite book. As she was reading, something caught her attention from the corner of her eye. She noticed a bright light shining under her pillow. What is that? She cautiously and curiously approached the bed and slowly lifted the pillow. There lay a bright glowing object. Good question. Ooh, it's a golden key. The key seemed familiar to Della but she could not remember where she might have seen it before. And how did it get there? So chapter number two, noted. Okay, that's the title of the chapter. We have a picture here of a video control. Okay. A video game controller. The next morning, Dean felt bad about what he had said to Della. So he decided to visit her and apologize. In typical Dean fashion, he chowed down his breakfast and rushed through the hallway. He figured that if he hurried fast enough, he could return home in time to finish fighting his way up Mud Mountain and play his video game all before dinner was served. As he was about to leave, he saw the game controller on his big comfy couch. He thought it really is the coolest video game ever. The urge to stay home overwhelmed him. I'll go after just one game. No more than that, Dean said. So he plopped himself down on the couch, reached for the game controller and noticed a small yellow note taped to the back. It read, meet me at the tree house. P.S. I knew you would be playing your video game. Signed by Della. And Della put a little sad face. I wonder why Della wants me to meet her at the tree house, he thought. They had not played there since last October. With his shoes barely laced up, Dean headed out the front door and hopped on a skateboard over to Della's house. As soon as he got there, he spotted movement in the tree house. It reminded him of last summer when they built the tree house with the help of Della's dad. He remembered how much fun they had and how excited they were to have their very own fort. Dean headed up the tree trunk ladder and opened the trap door. He popped his head in and saw Della staring back at him. What are you doing up here? Dean said, you came. Della was so happy to see him. Well, I kind of had no choice. Your note was pretty clear. Dean said, sounding a little annoyed. So why did you want me to come to the tree house anyway? We haven't been here in forever. We never play out here anymore, Della said sadly. I had to leave you the note early this morning because I figured it was the only way for you to stop playing your annoying video game. And it worked, didn't it? You finally left the house and now you're here. Dean felt silly for having had fallen for her trap and for being distracted by his video game. He did not want to admit that Della was right. He began to stammer. Well, you're wrong because I was going to come over here anyway to well, you were telling me about your weird dream yesterday and Della cut him off. It wasn't weird and it wasn't a dream. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the key. That's right, the golden key for Dean to see. So, big deal. You're holding a key, Dean said. It lights up, though. Look, Della held the golden key closer to Dean's face. But quickly noticed it was no longer lit up. Again, with your weird stories, Della, I can't believe I actually came up here to Dean changed his mind and said, you know what? Never mind. I'm going home to play my video game. That's right. Dean turned around and as he stormed toward the trapdoor of the tree house, he tripped over his untied gray and he tumbled to the floor. Della rushed over to him and asked, Dean, are you okay? Even though she was worried, she wasn't entirely surprised he had tripped. She knew Dean never took the time to properly tie his shoelaces. Yeah, Dean said, it just hurt my knee a little, but I'm okay. Before he got to his feet, Dean spotted something he had never seen before. Right there, next to the handle of the trapdoor, was a small keyhole notched into the wood. Wait, look over here. I don't remember seeing this before. Dean traced his fingers around the keyhole. Let me see that key again. Dean's excitement was contagious. Della quickly passed him the key. He took it in his hand and immediately felt that it was heavier than a normal key. Upon looking at it closely, he saw it had a small butterfly engraved on the key handle. Hmm, could this really have something to do with Della's dream? Dean was beginning to believe what Della had tried to explain to him earlier. Suddenly, something magical happened. The golden key began to... glow, right. Dean's eyes grew wide. Whoa, now that's pretty cool. It did the same thing earlier, Della explained. I'm telling you, it's the exact same key I saw in my dream. They looked at each other and exchanged a silent but knowing look. They knew what they had to do. Holding the key together, they carefully inserted it into the keyhole and turned it counterclockwise, very slowly. At first, nothing happened, but then the key began to spin quickly on its own and a bright light burst from the keyhole. It was blindingly bright. Dean and Della had to cover their eyes. A swirl of energy emerged from the keyhole and wrapped itself around the two friends. It pulled them down into a whirlwind tunnel. They fell down, down, down. Chapter 3, Morpho Time. Dean and Della both landed abruptly on the grass feet first. They stared at each other in disbelief. They immediately noticed something was very different. Just look at you, they both exclaimed. It made them laugh out loud. They were tiny. Around them, the green grass was high above their tiny bodies. Dean and Della walked over to a nearby pond and looked at their reflections in the water. Both were dressed differently than they had been just seconds before. They looked like superheroes. This is so cool, Dean said. He held out a spear. There was also a shield strapped to his back. He had no idea where they had come from. Della had a pretty wreath on her head, a bright purple cape on her back, and a bow with arrows. What are these four, Dean, she asked. I'm not sure, Dean replied. Let's explore the area a bit and maybe we can figure it out. He looked around. He looked familiar as if he had seen it before. But he was not sure where. Instinctively, he took Della's hand and said, let's go over this way. It looks safer. Careful, watch your step. They came to a clearing where they noticed a large blue butterfly flying towards them. Della immediately recognized this butterfly from her. Good. Hi, my name is Morpho. I've been to Della's. She said, as it got close. Wow, you can talk, Dean asked in belief. I told you, Della said, with a smile. I speak only when you are here in the Land of Duny. Welcome, said the blue butterfly. The Land of Duny, they repeated. They had never heard of it. Yes, Duny. Morpho flapped his wings. of the treehouse. Deep, deep down in the grass. Dean and Della remain quiet. They were speechless. Morpho continued, I am the ruler of Duny, and I have been watching over it for some time now. I fly around to make sure that Duny is safe. I watch over all the flowers and small creatures. As you can see, you are both much smaller than you were just a minute ago. But don't worry, you didn't travel too far. You'll notice the treehouse is directly above us. And look behind you. That's the tree's massive trunk. The children looked up and saw the treehouse far above them. Whoa, it looks like a huge castle from down here, Dean cried. But I don't understand. Why are we here? Well, I've been waiting for you, Morpho said. I left the key in Della's room for you to find. The land of Duny is in trouble. Trouble? They were both very worried. Yes, trouble. You see, at first, everything was fine in Duny. But then it all started to change. What do you mean, Della asked Morpho? How did Duny change? It was the strangest thing. All of a sudden Duny became dull. Morpho reflected for a second and then continued. The colors around us aren't as bright. The birds aren't singing. And the flowers, well, they just stopped blooming. Duny was once filled with beauty and the sounds of children's laughter. I'm afraid this is no longer true. The children sensed the sadness in Morpho's voice. They listened as he went on. A little while back there was a horrible noise. And just like that, everything went quiet. Duny hasn't been the same since, Morpho said. That's the reason we now need your help. The two best friends were confused. What could have happened? Why did Duny change? And more importantly, how could they help? Especially now that they were so small. Would you like me to continue or? Yeah, okay. Yeah, so now we are in chapter four. Castaway. Yeah, good. Yeah, pass the book around so you guys can take a look at the pictures. Yeah, they're quick chapters. So, because I want you to be able to read it and enjoy it. Yeah, I'll read one more chapter. Deal? Okay, so this chapter is called Castaway. Della and Dean began to brainstorm. That means they began to think. It was an honor to help their blue butterfly friends save the land of Duny. Let's see if we can figure this out together. Della said as she turned toward Dean. Dean, remember when we both played in the backyard? Yeah, that's all we ever did. Dean said kind of annoyed. We would chase butterflies, smell the flowers, lie on the grass and play games in the treehouse, Della said. So you could see them here in the backyard chasing butterflies, laying on the grass. Right. I remember all of that. Dean began to think. Oh, remember how high I would swing from the tree branch like I was a monkey? Dean was excited. He pouted his chest. You guessed it just like a monkey. And what happened the last time you did that? Della asked with amusement. When Dean only stared at her confused, she explained how you were swinging from the tree branch and oh, yeah, the tree branch snapped and I fell and broke my arm. Dean showed his arm to Morpho. I had to have a cast on my arm for six whole weeks. Dean said he sounded very proud of himself. Man, that tree branch made such a loud noise when it broke. Snap. The sound of your arm breaking, you mean Della joked. That was the louder sound. Ha ha, very funny. Dean was not amused. Other than that high pitched scream, of course, that was the loudest. Della laughed and then stopped. She had just realized something. Come to think of it, Dean. That's right around the time you started to play your video games. Aha, that's it Morpho explained flapping his wings. Dean and Della both jumped from alarm. I think that's the noise we heard here down in the land of Duny, Morpho explained. Let me explain further. You see, the magic of Duny comes from play, joy, and the power of make belief. Without it, things start to fade and become dull. Dull. That means no color. Both Della and Dean were listening with full attention. Morpho continued. Since that time, I've noticed that Della started playing all by herself. My plan was to have Dean return to the treehouse and start believing in Della's dream so that the two of you could eventually find and help save the land of Duny. Wow, Dean said sarcastically. That was a solid plan. Yes, Morpho agreed. He didn't pick up on Dean's sarcasm. It worked so far, but Duny has not yet been saved. That's why you appeared in Della's dream, Dean asked. Exactly. Once Della found the golden key, you were one step closer to coming here. Next though, Dean, I needed you to believe in the dream. And that worked out. You're both here. Soon, you can both help bring back joy to Duny and save us all. Morpho was excited now. But we still don't know how we can help, Della said. See that armor you're wearing? You may need it. What do you mean, Dean looked worried. You're much smaller than you were and everything else is much bigger. But that's okay because you can accomplish great things. No matter the challenge, you just have to believe in yourselves. And remember, having little patience along the way will always help. He also continued that being said, always remember, you are in nature and it's important to treat it kindly. You should only use your weapons if you have no other choice. That's the real reason I chose you to. I believe you would choose wisely. I believe you have magic within you and you just need to believe it too. Dean and Della felt honored to have been chosen. They had no idea how to actually use any of this power, but it was truly an honor. Wow, to think I could have been home playing video games all day, Dean cracked. Della smirked. I think what Dean is trying to say is that we will do whatever we can to help. Right, Dean? She gave Dean the back of his head a little smack with her hand. Dean rubbed his head and asked, can you show us around? It all looks so cool from this angle. Sure, follow me, Morpho led them down a footpath. Though he flew above the ground, suddenly a cold dust of wind blew and the kids nearly blew away. Morpho, the butterfly, remained unaffected. He was used to the gusts. Chapter five and I think I'll end it there. Okay, so do you guys have any questions and then I could ask you guys questions? Yes. So this is my first book and I wrote it, but if you guys like it, maybe I could write a second one. Yeah, yes? Yeah, good, you're smart because Doonie is dull, but you bring up a good point because once they save Doonie, it can become color and each of you can get this and color it in so that way Doonie can be alive and pretty again. Does that sound good? Yeah. And I'll be sure to give each of you a really cool bookmark. So on one side we have Dean who loves to play his video games and on the other side we have Della who loves to play outside and it comes with different color little tassels. Yeah, there's a lot of different colors. Any other questions? Yes? Oh, thank you. I want you to be able to take it home though and read it and finish it because Dean has to fight the mud monster from his video game and we have to see if he wins or not and if they save Doonie. So I wanted to mention a couple of things to you. I, I love fun facts. So fun facts are things that are true and so I included a whole list of them at the back of the book and it'll tell you about nature, about bees, about flowers, all the things that exist in the land of Doonie. But here are just a couple of fun facts about me. On this first page here we have Della waking up from her dream. I don't know if you could see this little tiny animal sleeping. Yeah, what does it look like? What kind of animal is it? It's a cat and the cat's name. Can you read the cat's name? Golden. Golden and do you know I have a cat named Golden and that's him there. I put him in the book and I also have a niece named Jenna. Thank you. I also have a niece Jenna who's eight years old and I asked her to write a note and she did and we put it in the book. So if you turn to page 77 you'll see this is actually Jenna's handwriting. Isn't that cool? Well it's small because you're kind of afar. It says we hope you have sweet and magical dreams. Dean and Della. Yeah yeah because she just put it in capital letters and then I also have a map at the back of the land of Doonie. Yeah so one of the questions so here's the tree house. That's okay. Yeah there's the golden key good job and then at the back there's also something called fill in the blanks. So I'll ask you questions and you guys can write your answers and in the back of the book and if you submit the answers to me on the website I can put a picture of you guys on the website if you want so you have to ask your parents first to help you with that. So when I wrote this book I was speaking to my nieces and they were never paying attention to me. They were always on their phones and I kind of got annoyed and so I started to make up a story and I made up two characters named Dean and Della and they had a key and believe it or not my nieces paid attention. They put down their tablets and they listened. So every time I spoke to them after that I began to continue to make up the story and then one day I sat down I took out my pen and paper and I began to write and that's how I wrote this book but then I hired someone called an illustrator exactly someone who draws pictures and she drew pictures to match my words and then I hired someone called a designer and they brought the words and the pictures together to make it a book and then how afterwards I contacted someone with a printer and they printed it all out for me. I also had someone who edited the book. Do you know what an editor is? Nyla? Correct. It makes sure that there's no mistakes in the words. Yes? So my illustrator her name is Kim and she's a nice older woman who how long do you think it took her to draw all the pictures? A couple of months okay anyone else want to guess? Okay yes? Good guess. Who wants to guess a bit more time? At the back there in the plaid yeah? Two hours? Okay and then you? Oh very good okay one more guess and you're the closest. It took Kim six months to draw all the pictures. Good. Do you know why it took her six months? Because she did it all with her hand. She didn't use any computers. She didn't use any technology. She just sat there with a pen and paper. She did sleep yes. So every day she would get up she would have her cup of coffee and she would draw. Yeah so it took me two weeks to write it. It took yeah that's pretty quick. It took Kim six months to illustrate it. It took the editor about three months to edit it and then the printer and designer took one year. Yeah so in total it took about a year and a half for me to get this beautiful book which I'm so proud of. It was a lot of hard work but you know what if you work hard you can do anything you set your mind to. Good who here likes to write? Great who here likes to read and who here likes to draw? I like to draw. What do you like to draw? People? What do you like to draw? Advanced drawings who and what do you like to draw? Draw like a couple of them. Wonderful I think we have a future artist and author yes. Ooh I like drawing clothing too. See so one day you can all become writers, authors, illustrators, whatever you want.