Word: lateef
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...Nelda LaTeef ’81 brings joy to children ages five to nine—and also to Walter Cronkite and Chris Evert. LaTeef’s first children’s book, The Hunter and the Ebony Tree, was published earlier this year. Tennis champion Chris Evert calls it “a truly satisfying read,” and venerated CBS anchor Walter Cronkite calls it “lovely,” according to praise on the book jacket. LaTeef is happiest, however, with the praise of her five-year-old nephew...
...LaTeef took a circuitous route to the world of children’s books. She worked briefly in a law firm, got her MBA and wrote her first book: Working Women for the 21st Century: Fifty Women Reveal Their Pathways to Success, which featured Evert. LaTeef then established a women’s textile company called Pillow Talk, which made linens and pillowcases for cultural institutions. She sold it after seven years, and became the director of development of the Foreign Policy Association, a non-profit that seeks to educate the public about foreign policy...
...kids. “The Zarma people have a saying: ‘One who hears something good must repeat it.’” She had been reading nightly to her three-year old niece and five-year old nephew, Lauren Petra and Harris Ned LaTeef, and came up with the idea of doing an anthology of folktales. “But if you put the tales together there’s no room for illustration,” she says. “And the perfect bridge between cultures...
...LaTeef chose to recount one story, a tale of a young woman whose father wishes her to marry the strongest man she meets. The woman convinces him instead that her suitors should perform a task: she will agree to marry whoever can get their arrow to stick in the trunk of the ebony tree. The story, she says, “teaches the importance of careful planning and good friends. In it, strategy is more important than strength...
...LaTeef used her own strategy in the retelling. She enlarged upon the woman’s role, having her create the contest instead of passively observing. “I kept the main ideas. From there, I took poetic license.” Although she happened on it in her 20s, LaTeef’s serendipitous discovery of the story was in part the result of her childhood travels...