HAMLET — Zaidoon Al-Zubaidy did what he wanted for his birthday: read.
In addition to being co-owner of Axe to Grind and Birmingham Sweets with his wife Stephanie, Al-Zubaidy has also written and illustrated two children’s books.
On July 13, his 55th birthday, Al-Zubaidy read both of his Bertie the Cat books at the downtown Hamlet ice cream shop with a little help from 8-year-old Isaac Rosado.
Al-Zubaidy had Rosado sound out some of the passages from “Bertie and the Troublesome Mice” and “Bertie Smells a Rat.”
Foster parent Cindy Auman said Rosado couldn’t read when he came to stay with her in March, but said she’s been impressed with his progress.
All of the books will have a message, but aren’t preachy: “I want it to be fun.”
The lesson of the first book is “all you need to do is try,” and the second is “it’s OK to ask for help” — both lessons he’s learned through life.
The third book, which will be about loyalty, is about half-done, and a future book will be about diversity.
“I have always been interested in doing art — always,” Al-Zubaidy said. “I wanted to go to art school when I was in high school. I come from a conservative Middle Eastern background that believes that you need to be a doctor or a lawyer or a dentist or something like that.”
Born in Iraq, Al-Zubaidy’s family immigrated to the United Kingdom and he says education is “very critical.”
He said his parents told him he could doodle after graduating from college, “but you need to get yourself a proper degree to make yourself some money so you can live a proper life here” — and not be a starving artist.
“I didn’t like the idea, but of course, I had to,” Al-Zubaidy said, adding that his father filled out the applications and signed him up for his classes.
Al-Zubaidy graduated with a degree in pharmacology from the University of London, then hopped the pond to attend the University of Alberta in Canada.
“I graduated, got a fantastic job making some great money and I was doodling on the side,” he said. “And my dad was right …And after I had a very successful career in science and in business, now I had some time to really focus on doing what I wanted to do … and he was OK with it.”
Al-Zubaidy said he got the blessing from both parents “and I was able to live out this dream that I always wanted to have.”
(Note: In the middle of the interview, Al-Zubaidy received a surprise visit from his brother, Feras, who is retired and living in California.)
Al-Zubaidy wrote the first book about nine years ago, then started a business and the writing got pushed to the side.
The main character, Bertie, is based on a cat owned by his sister-in-law.
One day, his niece asked if he could doodle a cat — so he did.
“So I asked her, ‘What’s the cat’s name?’ and she said, ‘Bertie.’
He then asked, “What does Bertie do?” and she said, ‘He works in a cheese shop.’
“And I thought … ‘What’s he do in a cheese shop?’ and she looked at me like I was the idiot. ‘He stops the mice from stealing cheese. He’s a security cat.’
“So between her and I and with time … we just fabricated the story of Bertie the Cat.”
Al-Zubaidy has also incorporated part of himself into the character.
Bertie comes from a long line of mouse catchers, but doesn’t want to be a mouse catcher — Al-Zubaidy is from a family of academics.
“But I buckled down…and I became a really good mouse catcher … I became a really good scientist and a really good business person — I’d like to think.”
