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The First Assyrian Illustrated Children’s Book:
Romil Benyamino’s “ܣܲܗܪܵܐ / SAHRA / MOON”

by Romil Benyamino.  For Immediate Release, September 14, 2009, 9:00 PM PST.

Posted: Friday, September 25, 2009 at 8:00 PM CT | Updated: August 19,2013

The First Assyrian Illustrated Children’s Book

SACRAMENTO, California USA – September 2009 – Today, many Assyrian families establish their homes in North America, Europe, and Australia where there is little pressure forcing the youth and newer generations to speak their native language in their homes and among friends. Romil Benyamino is a first generation Assyrian-American concerned about this issue, and recently, attempted to find a solution.

One method that Romil Benyamino has come up with is to encourage the use of the Assyrian language by means of art and entertainment. His first attempt was by creating several comical YouTube videos that, in fact, became fairly popular among the Assyrian teens around the world. He later decided to take advantage of his small fame to spread the word about his new project; one that is much more serious and more geared towards the smaller crowd, the Assyrian children.

Romil Benyamino’s “ܣܲܗܪܵܐ / Sahra / Moon” is the first illustrated children’s book, written in Assyrian; a playful bedtime story that takes our children on a journey into the wilderness to discover various animals and events taking place during the night. The story is written in Assyrian verse and supplemented with phonetic writing and an English translation meant to help parents read the story to their children and to help teachers teach the language to their students.

Issa Benyamin, the prominent Assyrian calligraphist said, “This, the smallest of works that has come from my hands, I have done with pride; I have met my responsibilities to my people; in my grave, my head will rest easy… I have no discomforts at all.”  Romil Benyamino aspires to one day say these exact words.

Book Details

– Category: Children’s bedtime story
– Paperback: 24 Pages
– Dimensions: 8.5" x 8.5"
– Author: Romil Benyamino
– Illustrator: Victor Benyamino
– Editor: Tobia Giwargis
– Printed by: Medius Corporation
– Language: Assyrian, Gurshuni (phonetic), and English translation
– Age group: For all ages

About the Author

First generation Assyrian-American, Romil Benyamino is a 25 year old musician, artist, writer, and scientist. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from University of California, Davis and is married to a Child Development scholar, Lupe Benyamino. His lifelong devotion is to add to and preserve the Assyrian culture and encourage the use of its language by means of art and entertainment. Recently, his main target has been children.

Contact information

Romil Benyamino, rbenyamino [ at ] gmail.com

For more information about the author and book: http://www.Benyamino.com

Moon Story, First Assyrian Interactive Children's iPad Book

The first interactive Assyrian children’s story for iPad is now available in iTunes. During the beginning of the summer Sargon Benjamin, an app developer and C.E.O of Base 2 Applications, was on a creativity hunt. He wanted to make a fun and artistic application geared towards the Assyrian audience: “I had some free time and wanted to work on something new.” That was when Sargon contacted Romil Benyamino, the author of Moon (ܣܲܗܪܵܐ), about making interactive digital Assyrian children’s books. Romil was all over the idea and the two decided to work together on digitizing Moon (ܣܲܗܪܵܐ).

One month passed and the story is now available for iPad, titled Moon Story. “We plan to develop Moon Story for more devices such as iPhone and also Android,” says Sargon. Regardless how well these Assyrian applications do with consumers, Sargon and Romil find them very necessary to be available. “I hope we can make more,” says Romil, “I already started the illustrations of my next story in hopes to turn that into an app as well.”

Moon Story is available in the iTunes Store,

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/moon-story/id687613511?ls=1&mt=8

Related Information

Aramaic Dictionary

search the online Aramaic Lexicon and Concordance, the dictionary of our language using English or Aramaic words including many other options.  To properly view the Syriac font on your computer screen, please download and install the Estrangelo font.
URL: https://www.atour.com/dictionary

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