We’re delighted to have Sahar Golshan, the author of SO LOUD! (Annick Press, 2024), join us for this Power Q & A. Sahar speaks about the power of reading and representation in childhood, and how this compelled her to tell this story of finding your voice in her new, incredibly fun, and touching children’s picture book.

Q: Why did you choose the form of a children’s picture book to tell this story?

A: Picture books are powerful. They are the very first books that a person reads in their lifetime. Adults often remember the first titles they read in childhood. I want kids, especially girls and gender-diverse children, to read this book and feel emboldened to be their true selves. No matter if they’re loud, quiet, or somewhere in between.

I have vivid childhood memories of being read to in libraries. I remember being in grade one and being shuffled into the school library. The librarian read a picture book called A Promise Is a Promise by Michael Kusugak and Robert Munsch. She read it very well. Maybe too well. I was both scared and moved by its powerful message of keeping to your word. I reflect now on how important it was for me, a non-Indigenous child growing up in Canada’s largest city, to have been read a story about Inuit folklore and contemporary Inuit life.

I was also gifted a picture book called From Far Away by Saoussan Askar and Robert Munsch as a kid. It was the first time I’d seen a woman wearing hijab depicted in a book. My father’s family in Iran are Muslim and it was powerful for me to see a Muslim woman represented in this story. From Far Away is also about the culture shock of moving to a new country. It resonated with me as a mixed-race child who grew up in between many cultures. The main character of So Loud! is named Rudy. I don't often see mixed-race children with two racialised parents depicted in children's literature, so in this way telling Rudy's story in picture book form was really meaningful to me.

More about SO LOUD!

Rudābeh (Rudy for short) loves to talk, sing, jump and shout. There’s just one problem: the adults in her life are always telling her that she is SO LOUD. When her grandmother (Māmān Bozorg) visits from Iran for the first time, Rudy worries that she might be too loud for her. But as she tries to be quieter, Rudy starts to feel less and less like herself. Listening closely to the many sounds in her world—from husky howls and streetcar chimes to Māmān Bozorg’s roaring sneezes—Rudy tries to figure out the full range of her own voice, discovering along the way the joy in being loud.

With exuberant illustrations by Shiva Delsooz, this charming story will resonate with readers who love to make noise and are still learning where and when to take up space.

More about Sahar Golshan:

Sahar Golshan is the author of the picture book So Loud! (Annick Press, March 2024) So Loud! is illustrated by Shiva Delsooz. Sahar is a writer, a language learner, and the director of the short documentary KAR (2019). She is a winner of the Marina Nemat Award for Creative Writing in Non-Fiction and a recipient of the Air Canada Short Film Award. Her writing has appeared in Room, Taclanese, Shameless, The Ex-Puritan, The Ampersand Review, and Tongues: On Longing and Belonging through Language. She enjoys teaching and facilitating workshops in academic and community spaces such as the University of Toronto and the Toronto Public Library.