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Calling All Authors Teresa Aires Rodrigues ’19 is on a mission to collaborate with children from around the world on a book project.

Teresa-Aires-Rodrigues-’19-800x533 Calling All AuthorsTeresa Aires Rodrigues ’19

“The world is sick, and children need to have fun, exercise their brains through reading and have something new to look forward to.”

~ Teresa Aires Rodrigues ’19

A master’s student at Maastricht University, Teresa Aires Rodrigues ’19 was on break in her hometown of Lisbon, Portugal, when the order to quarantine came through. Even though all of her belongings are miles away, she is happy to be with her family while the world works to flatten the COVID-19 pandemic curve.

In the meantime, Rodrigues has developed a project — The Mission Book — to reach out to and entertain children from all over the world. Her interactive story invites children to participate in building a book chapter by chapter.

“The world is sick, and children need to have fun, exercise their brains through reading and have something new to look forward to,” explained Aires Rodrigues, who has published two books and five short stories with Chiado Editora. “This is my way to contribute a little to the world during such a chaotic time.”

Every week, she’ll post a new chapter to the website. “Kids sign up as secret agents, read the latest installment and send me their suggestions to solve the book’s secret missions. I’ll incorporate some of those ideas in the next chapter.”

She’s writing the story in Portuguese and English and has friends translating it into German, French, Arabic and Bulgarian. Kenza Amine Benabdallah ’22 is working on the Spanish translation.

“The goal is to connect kids from all over the world through a story that they can relate to and that incentivizes reading habits and imagination,” said Aires Rodrigues.

She invites your children to sign up and become a secret agent.