Samir, from “The Man Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams,” mirrors the author’s father: a lively, engaging man who captivates people with his storytelling.

“Samir’s not the main character, but he takes center stage,” author Daniel Nayeri said. “He owns the spotlight and was inspired by my dad. When he’s in a restaurant, somehow all the other tables are in a conversation with us. He tells big stories, and he likes being around people and talking and haggling. He’s one of those great storytellers.”

Like his father, Nayeri is a natural storyteller, often weaving his personal experiences into conversations to make a point. During his visit to Albion Middle School, he shared memories of his childhood—his mother and his stuffed lamb, trips to the ice cream store with his father, whittling with his son and his wife’s fashion expertise helping him choose scarves and berets for his signature look.

When Nayeri enters a classroom, the students greet him enthusiastically. He teases one student about the opportunity to pay her to do her social studies homework, and as a former pastry chef, challenges a teacher to a bake-off. As a woodworker who crafts wooden spoons, he discusses sandpaper grits and woodworking safety with students, though he’s reminded to avoid cutting off a finger with the band saw.

His hands are critical to his work as they craft the stories he pens. As an immigrant from Iran, Nayeri’s journey was shaped by his experiences at refugee camps and arriving in Oklahoma at age 7, not knowing English. He and a boy from Kansas were cast as outsiders, and together they became lifelong friends and that boy inspired a character in Nayeri’s book, “Everything Sad is Untrue (A True Story).” 

“My mom is a central part of that story; and it’s about the strength of my mother and she’s a hero in that story. Everyone says that story is a love letter to your mom,”
he said.

Nayeri’s childhood experience of living without a stable home for several years also influenced “Samir,” who travels the 11th-century Silk Road. Sometimes Nayeri would tell his immigration story as a funny tale; other times it was a grand adventure.

“I have friends who were engineers, and they would talk about when they were young how they would take apart the family toaster and put it back together again, just to see how it worked,” he told students. “I felt like that’s what I ended up doing at your age, with stories. I got to engineer stories, and I fell in love with it. “

About 800 students, along with parents, faculty, staff, and community members, read “Samir” in the months leading up to Nayeri’s visit. Two hundred books were circulated across grade levels, and some classes followed along with Nayeri as he read the audiobook.

The Albion community engaged deeply with the story. In cooking classes, students made date snacks from the book, art classes created batiks and pottery inspired by the Silk Road, and the school band and orchestra played music based on it. Math students simulated trade along the Silk Road, while history classes integrated the story into their Utah Studies curriculum. Even parents participated in a book discussion, and faculty created scenes during a
paint night.

“The greatest compliment you can get as a writer is that it inspired more work,” he said. “It was so cool to see a whole school take on a book like this. It has been enriching that every teacher and every student at Albion took it on and made it their own. I get to celebrate something outside of myself, because they made it theirs.”

He said of his 30 visits to schools per year, “I never had a school do this at this level.”

Nayeri’s visit began when Stephanie Kourianos and her colleagues saw him at the 2023 National Council of Teachers of English conference. It took about 18 months to secure funding through grants—Donors Choose, Canyons Innovation and Voya Unsung Heroes—that enabled the purchase of 200 books and to bring Nayeri from New York to Albion.

“We wanted to teach kids that learning is connected, that a story that you read in ELA (English Language Arts) has connections with your history class, your math class, your science class and how learning isn’t isolated,” she said. “We wanted to make this an all-community read and discovered what we can do with one story, how much power a story has and how much the ideas and themes you learn from the story can be put on a much bigger
platform.”

Once Nayeri arrived, he fully immersed himself into the school culture created by his book, much like Monkey (an orphaned boy raised by monks, fondly nicknamed by Samir) adapts to the Taklamakan Desert. He was welcomed from class to class, talked to faculty over dinner and read sixth-grade students’ own writing and offered feedback.

“I read dozens of stories and they’re incredible, at a high level. I got to do a deep dive with the kids who are interested in writing and talk shop,” he said. “That’s really fun, to roll up our sleeves and get into it.”

That was remarkable to Principal Eric Gardner.

“To have a Newbery Honor award writer sit down and give sixth-grade students feedback on their writing, to have him inspire them, it was incredible,” Gardner said. “He’s personable, genuine and wants to get to know
each student.”

In a social studies class, he was surprised to see they were reading Voltaire. Finding a connection, the former high school linebacker and fullback shared his first story was about football, inspired by Voltaire. He also read an excerpt from his book, “Everything Sad is Untrue (A True Story),” the school’s book club selection for February, and participated in a game of “Four Corners,” where he picked his favorite things, like eating lamb kabobs, which appeared in “Samir.”

Nayeri recently completed two new books: a graphic novel, “The Bizarre Bazaar,” and a World War II historical novel, “The Teacher of Nomad Land,” about a brother and sister in Iran who meet a Jewish refugee boy from Poland.

He first began writing on subways and in cafes, but now he works in a shed in his backyard. He writes significant portions by hand before switching to a computer to avoid distractions, all while continuing to jot down ideas or doodling while thinking of what to write next.

“I have a shelf of notebooks where the real first edition of every single one of my books exists,” he said. 

Now a recipient of the Michael L. Printz Award, the Christopher Medal, and a Newbery Honor, Nayeri’s work has earned acclaim. Yet, he is authentic with students.

In one of his final classroom visits, Nayeri collaborated with seventh-grader Lela Bills, who designed a cell phone holder for him based on “Samir.” After hearing other students pitch names for new characters in his books, he smiled at Lela and said, “I could work with Lela; it’s a Persian name.”

Lela smiled; she is a fan of “Samir.”

“I was nervous for the end of the book, but I was happy for the ending,” she said. “This has been fun having the whole school involved in the book. I’ve compared the Silk Road to the Oregon Trail, we drew settings and made character sketches in ELA and now, I’m with this famous author, creating the cell phone holder I designed based on his book.”

In his last few hours, Nayeri continued to share stories with students before heading to the airport. His suitcase likely felt heavier, filled with gifts from students—a batik of the donkey, a scarf made for him by a student, fidget toys based on his stories and more. His mind, too, may have been full of the adventures he’s shared, much
like Samir. λ