Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from Ms. Marvel: Remnants of the Past by Saadia Faruqi, which is available from January 6th 2026.

Kamala Khan is Jersey City’s premier super hero, Ms. Marvel! She’s stretched between going to the mosque, posting Avengers fanfic on the internet, and fighting crime.

But then a clash ends with a pair of priceless spectacles in the wrong hands—Ms. Marvel’s! Now she’s on a mission to return them to where they belong, once she’s figured out where that is. A mysterious new bad guy drops hints at magical secrets the spectacles hold, setting Ms. Marvel on a quest to Lahore, Pakistan. It’s the trip of a lifetime, seeing the land of her father’s youth, but Kamala is forced to grapple with what to do when the choice between right and wrong isn’t so clear.

Saadia Faruqi delivers a beautiful exploration of the Pakistani American experience through the eyes of Marvel’s Kamala Khan.

Chapter One

People thought patrolling was easy.

How hard could it be, really? You put on your Ms. Marvel costume. Stretched your limbs long, long, long. Climbed on top of a streetlight and viewed your kingdom.

Well, Jersey City. Same thing.

Then you waited for the villains to arrive.

I didn’t think it was easy, though. That was the wrong adjective. Some nights it was thrilling, like when a bunch of villains came roaring through the streets thinking they’d cause some mayhem and scare off some civilians.

It was always my extreme pleasure to let them know this was my city, my streets, and they could just crawl back into whatever sewer they came from.

Of course, patrols could be boring too, if the night was quiet and nobody came out to play. That’s when I tried to get some homework done.

Ugh. I was so not a fan of that. Physics was kicking my ass this semester.

My phone buzzed. It was Bruno Carrelli, my best friend, tech wizard, and maybe, possibly, something more one day in the future. I wasn’t sure about that part yet. “You heading downtown, Kamala?”

“That’s Ms. Marvel to you,” I teased.

“Sorry, Ms. Marvel.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “I’ve intercepted some chatter about villain activity near the museums.”

Bruno’s sigh was so loud, I heard it clearly through the phone. “Kamala, just get over there. I’ll text you the coordinates.”

I rolled my eyes. “I know where the museum is, Bruno. No need for coordinates.”

“I meant where the chatter is coming from.”

“Oh, yeah. That’d be great. Can’t wait to protect some innocents!”

Bruno paused. Then: “Be safe, Kamala.”

Whoa. What was that voice? And why did the mood of this conversation flip so fast? “Yeah, yeah. Safety is my middle name.”

“It really isn’t. If you had a middle name, it would be Excitable. Enthusiastic. Dramatic, maybe?”

“Okay . . .”

“Oh, how about Nerdy? That fits you.”

“Shut up, doofus.” Grinning, I ended the call and walked faster. Tonight, I was patrolling downtown Jersey City, near the art museum. It was one of my favorite places to patrol, because you could see glimpses of the Hudson River from the streets. And if you climbed up a streetlight, like I loved to do, you could see clear across the river to New York City.

My phone buzzed again with the coordinates of whichever villain Bruno had found chattering over the airwaves. The magic my friend could weave using his laptop and brain cells was astounding. I sent back a thumbs-up emoji and hurried to my destination.

Uh, sorry, coordinates.

I was a few blocks from the museum when a deep, gentle vibration shook the ground. “What the . . . ?”

“Aw, did that scare you, Ms. Marvel? I was just getting started.”

I looked up. A huge figure dressed in yellow-and-brown armor stood at the end of the street. Its wrists were encased in steel gauntlets that gave off an electrical charge. “Shocker,” I muttered in the same tone I’d say scum of the earth.

“At your service,” he replied, striding closer.

I held my ground. I’d come across Shocker’s vibro-shocks plenty of times, and I knew what to expect. Painful shock waves that vibrated the air around him like little earthquakes.

Too bad I was a brave first-gen Pakistani American girl. A little shock wave didn’t hurt me. Much.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, eyes narrowed.

He shrugged his giant shoulders. “Got bored. Decided to come outside and check things out.”

I took a deep breath. So it was going to be a thrilling kind of evening.

Perfect, just what I needed to get my blood pumping.

“Well, check this out.” I clenched my right fist and then yelled, “Embiggen!”

It was more for effect than anything else, because my powers worked just fine without words. My arm elongated like a writhing snake, then shot outward. A second later, my fist went crashing into Shocker’s jaw.

He staggered into a big green trash container, grunting. With all that armor, Shocker wasn’t exactly light on his feet.

Ha. Dude wasn’t expecting my attack, even with all my yelling.

“Are you okay?” I asked with mock concern. “Maybe you need to go home and nurse that wounded ego.”

“You think you can defeat me, kid?” He straightened quickly and held out an arm. A tunnel of air blasted at warp speed, colliding with my entire body and flinging me into the air.

“Oof!” I flew across the street and landed on the pavement.

I didn’t stop to think. Still on the ground, I whipped my legs into long ropes and snapped them around Shocker’s legs. “Yes, actually, I think I can!”

He tumbled down but threw air blasts at me, again and again.

My legs shrank back. I flew farther down the street like a paper in strong wind. “Is that the best you can do?” I cried, sending a long arm to a streetlight and pulling myself up.

Shocker stood up too. “Oh, no, I’m just getting started!”

I knew what was coming, and I ducked. A blast of air vibrated around me, and a building to the right began to shake.

RRRR-RUMBLE!

Alarmed, I looked to my right. I’d seen Shocker destabilize buildings with his vibro-shocks. My eyes fluttered in relief when I realized it was just a parking garage. At this time of night, there shouldn’t be any people inside.

Still, it was time to shut this down. We were too close to the museum to have Shocker shaking things up.

I made both hands big as cars and strong as trees. Then I sent them shooting through the air to pummel Shocker. Once, twice, three times . . . I kept at it, ignoring the air blasts to my skin.

God, those things hurt!

“Gah! Stop!” Shocker grumbled. “I give up! This isn’t worth the abuse!”

I panted and grinned. “Not until you tell me what you’re doing here this fine evening.”

“I heard rumors!”

“Such as . . . ?” I slowed my punches so he’d have a chance to spill the beans.

He groaned. “I heard Kingpin’s got some valuable items here, so I thought I’d get them first.”

I brought my arms back to my side. “Kingpin? What does he want in Jersey City?”

“I don’t know, something legendary.” Shocker jumped back so quickly, I didn’t have time to blink. In a flash, he’d leapt on top of a building, then another one. “Good luck finding out, Ms. Marvel!” he yelled as he disappeared.

Great! Now I had a dozen questions running through my mind. There was no way I’d get any homework done tonight.

I elongated my legs again and climbed on top of a streetlight, where I had a lovely view of the river. Any villain who got close would have the enthusiastic, excitable, and maybe even dramatic Ms. Marvel to deal with.

Reprinted from Ms. Marvel: Remnants of the Past. Copyright © 2026 by Saadia Faruqi. Published by Random House/Marvel, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

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Releasing on January 6th 2026, be sure to preorder your copy! Now read on to discover the synopsis and cover!

Ms. Marvel trips into a mystery that brings her from Jersey City to Lahore, Pakistan, and back again, all on a chase for a magical artifact in this adventure from Marvel Press.

Kamala Khan is Jersey City’s premier super hero, Ms. Marvel! She’s stretched between going to the mosque, posting Avengers fanfic on the internet, and fighting crime.

But then a clash ends with a pair of priceless spectacles in the wrong hands—Ms. Marvel’s! Now she’s on a mission to return them to where they belong, once she’s figured out where that is. A mysterious new bad guy drops hints at magical secrets the spectacles hold, setting Ms. Marvel on a quest to Lahore, Pakistan. It’s the trip of a lifetime, seeing the land of her father’s youth, but Kamala is forced to grapple with what to do when the choice between right and wrong isn’t so clear.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Saadia Faruqi is a Pakistani American author and interfaith activist. She writes the popular children’s early reader series Yasmin and other books for children, including award-winning middle grade novels, chapter books, and graphic novels. Her 2025 novel The Strongest Heart, depicting mental illness and its effect on families, received starred reviews from Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, School Library Journal, Booklist and the Horn Book. In 2024, The Partition Project, highlighting the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan, won the South Asia Book Award. Her 2023 graphic novel Saving Sunshine, about animal conservation and biodiversity, was a finalist for the Eisner award, a Kirkus Best Book, and a New York Public Library Best Book. Additionally, A Place At The Table (co-written with Laura Shovan) was a Sydney Taylor Notable in 2021 for its heartwarming friendship story between a Muslim and Jewish girl. Saadia is editor-in-chief of Blue Minaret, a magazine for Muslim art, poetry and prose, and was featured in Oprah Magazine in 2017 as a woman making a difference in her community. She lives in Houston, TX with her husband and children. 

The post Exclusive Cover Reveal: Ms. Marvel: Remnants of the Past by Saadia Faruqi appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Read on to learn about Saving Sunshine along with an excerpt of the first few pages!

Hi, Saadia! Welcome back! How has the past two years been since we last spoke?

Thanks for having me back. I always enjoy reading the latest posts about some of my favorite books on The Nerd Daily! I’ve been busy, writing several new books, traveling around the country doing school visits (which I love), and trying to spend at least some time with my family in between all the work.

Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!

I read a ton of books for fun as a kid, and those never inspired me to become an author. They did inspire me to write my own stories, but those were for my own pleasure, as a hobby. I wrote in my notebook and never shared them with anyone growing up. As an adult, the first book I remember making me want to get published was Minaret by Leila Aboulela, which was the first time I realized that Muslim stories could be published, that there was a space for someone like me be authentic and real in my writing. I still think about that book all the time, how it made me so much more confident and inspired.

Your debut graphic novel, Saving Sunshine, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

That’s tough. A writer can’t really explain anything unless they write an entire novel! Still, here goes: Sibling angst. Endangered animals. Funny.

What can readers expect?

There is so much in this graphic novel! Siblings who hate each other, loving and complicated immigrant families, animal activism, and the most gorgeous art! There’s so much content in this book, so many themes to explore and discuss and enjoy, that I’m hoping readers will go back to it again and again.

Where did the inspiration for Saving Sunshine come from?

My own kids, who seemed to be constantly arguing, were the inspiration for the two main characters. I kept trying to keep them apart, trying to understand why they were always fighting, and often giving these ultimatums like the parents do in Saving Sunshine. I began to think what it was about siblings that led to this sort of angsty relationship, and what could bring them together.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

I love all the characters, of course, but something new that I’ve never explored in one of my books before is the parents’ relationship. In Saving Sunshine, I wanted to show a loving Muslim family, and that ended up translating into a very sweet, romantic back-and-forth between the twins’ parents. I just loved writing those little snippets and imagining the story behind their life, hoping that my readers pick up on it as well. The turtle, Sunshine, is another unique character or topic that I’d never really explored in depth before. I loved learning more about all the animals – one of the main characters has an animal app that comes up often in the story – and especially about turtles and how their habitat is being endangerd because of urban developments.

Can you tell us about the process in Shazleen Khan’s stunning illustrations coming to life?

Shazleen’s illustrations are absolutely stunning! It’s almost a watercolor feel, and they bring everything in my story to life in a way that I wasn’t really expecting. I saw the sketches, of course, and was given the opportunity at every part of the illustration process to give feedback and request changes, which helped make that process very real to me. Still, seeing the final art for the first time really blew me away!

What do you hope your readers will take away from Saving Sunshine?

There are two kinds of takeaways in this book. One is about animal activism and how important our planet is, how precious all the creatures inhabiting it are, not just humans but every single living thing. I know young readers are worried about the planet, and their future, so I hope Saving Sunshine can help answer some of their questions. The other type of takeaway is how we treat each other. The characters face many microaggressions, things that won’t even register to the ordinary reader unless they’ve experienced it. Hopefully, this book can bring some of those negative, ugly, hurtful actions to life so readers can keep an eye out for them in the future.

What’s next for you?

I’m working on another graphic novel titled Don’t Be Scared, also by Macmillan/First Second. This is about a boy and his relationsip (or rather non-relationship) with his father, and how they slowly come closer because of ghost stories. I’m excited to enter the horror genre in a small way through this graphic novel, and I can’t wait to see how the illustrations by Shadia Amin bring the story to life.

Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?

I don’t have specific book recommendations, because everyone has different reading preferences. However, I urge readers to make sure they’re reading widely. What I mean by this is, read books by authors who are unlike you. Read books by BIPOC authors. Books set in other countries. Books that highlight cultures other your own. I had a friend who once spent an entire year reading only books written by women. I believe that whatever you read, if it’s within that description of reading widely, then you’ll have a wonderful experience.

EXCERPT

Will you be picking up Saving Sunshine? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Saadia Faruqi, Author of ‘Saving Sunshine’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Weird Kid by Greg Van Eekhout
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Strange things are happening in Cedar Creek View, Arizona: Sinkholes. An unidentified Hum. People behaving… oddly. No one knows the reason, but Jake thinks it might have something to do with him. Weird Kid is a story about a boy trying to find his place in the world – even though he’s an alien from a distant planet.

Josephine Against the Sea by Shakirah Bourne
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Meet Josephine, the most loveable mischief-maker in Barbados, in a magical, heartfelt adventure inspired by Caribbean mythology.

The Other Side of Luck by Ginger Johnson
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A young pauper and a caged princess vie for the reward of a special contest that finds them searching for the elusive Silva Flower. The Other Side of Luck follows two children from opposite circumstances as their fates cross and change both their lives forever.

Secondhand Dogs by Carolyn Crimi
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A heartwarming—and heart-tugging—middle grade novel about love, loyalty, and what it means to be part of a family, featuring a motley pack of rescue dogs—from author Carolyn Crimi, with adorable illustrations by Melissa Manwill. Perfect for fans of A Dog’s Life and Because of Winn-Dixie.

Ten Thousand Tries by Amy Makechnie
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A middle school soccer whiz’s determination to keep things from changing is tested when his father’s ALS symptoms worsen in this touching story about growing up and facing loss, perfect for fans of Shouting at the Rain.

Margie Kelly Breaks the Dress Code by Bridget Farr
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The middle grade novel features a girl who leads a protest at her middle school after she is unfairly dress-coded. A timely and thought-provoking story of one girl’s fight against gender inequality and the lessons she learns about her own privilege along the way.

Kingdom of Secrets by Christyne Morrell
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When her father is arrested for a crime she committed, Prismena will do anything to save him, taking her on a high-flying and shadowy adventure in this middle-grade fantasy debut.

The Renegade Reporters by Elissa Brent Weissman
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When Ash gets kicked off her school’s news show, she becomes a renegade reporter – and makes a big discovery about technology and her fellow students’ privacy.

Say It out Loud by Allison Varnes
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Charlotte Andrews is perfectly fine being quiet – in fact, she prefers it. But when she witnesses bullying on the school bus and doesn’t say anything, her silence comes between her and her best friend. An empowering look at finding your voice, facing your fears, and standing up for what’s right.

Ghost Girl by Ally Malinenko
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Zee Puckett loves ghost stories. She just never expected to be living one. Perfect for fans of Small Spaces and Nightbooks, Ally Malinenko’s middle-grade debut is an empowering and triumphant ghost story—with spooky twists sure to give readers a few good goosebumps!

The Plentiful Darkness by Heather Kassner
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In this spine-chilling, middle-grade fantasy reminiscent of Serafina and the Black Cloak, an orphaned girl chases a thieving boy into a magician’s land of starless, moonless gloom where other children have gone missing before her.

Stowaway by John David Anderson
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The beloved author of Posted returns with the first book in a coming-of-age sci-fi duology about Leo, a kid trying to navigate the galaxy in order to save his family—and, possibly, the planet Earth.

The Insiders by Mark Oshiro
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Three kids who don’t belong. A room that shouldn’t exist. A year that will change everything. Perfect for fans of Rebecca Stead and Meg Medina, this debut middle grade novel from award-winning author Mark Oshiro is a hopeful and heartfelt coming-of-age story for anyone who’s ever felt like they didn’t fit in.

Cuba in my Pocket by Adrianna Cuevas
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Cuba in my Pocket follows a 12-year-old boy who leaves his family in Cuba to immigrate to the U.S. by himself. Based on the author’s family history, this novel transports readers back to the 1960s when Castro solidifies his power and Cumba tries to make a better life for himself in Florida.

Last Gamer Standing by Katie Zhao
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Ready Player One meets the action of battle royal video games in this middle-grade sci-fi perfect for fans of Fortnite.

Recipe for Disaster by Aimee Lucido
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Hannah’s schemes for throwing her own bat mitzvah unleash family secrets, create rivalries with best friends, and ultimately teach Hannah what being Jewish is all about in Recipe for Disaster.

Yusuf Azeem Is Not a Hero by Saadia Faruqi
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At a time when we are all asking questions about identity, grief, and how to stand up for what is right, this book by the author of A Thousand Questions will hit home with young readers who love Hena Khan and Varian Johnson—or anyone struggling to understand recent U.S. history and how it still affects us today.

What Lives in the Woods by Lindsay Currie
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All Ginny Anderson wants is to relax and enjoy her summer. But when Ginny’s father surprises the family with a month-long trip to Michigan, her plans change for the worse. What Lives in the Woods is a chilling ghost story about Ginny living in a decrepit and creepy mansion who discovers the something in the woods may be after her.

Frankie and Bug by Gayle Forman
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The novel spotlights the friendship between Bug, a feisty 10-year-old girl from Venice Beach, who feels abandoned when her older brother decides he’d rather hang out with his friends than with her; and Frankie, an 11-year-old trans boy who arrives from Ohio to spend the summer with his gay uncle—and who wants only to have the chance to be who he is.

Barakah Beats by Maleeha Siddiqui
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Perfect for fans of Hena Khan and The First Rule of Punk, Barakah Beats is the story of 12-year-old Nimra Sharif who has spent her whole life in Islamic school and suddenly finds herself going to “real” school – and realizes that middle school is a whole new beast to conquer.

Fifty-Four Things Wrong with Gwendolyn Rogers by Caela Carter
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Critically acclaimed author Caela Carter writes a timely and poignant #OwnVoices story that shines a bright light on one girl’s frustration and ultimate hope in dealing with her neurodiversity.

The Circus at the End of the Sea by Lori R. Snyder
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A vibrant and enchanting debut novel about an orphan girl who discovers a magical circus, this story shows readers the magic of following your heart and finding where you belong. Perfect for fans of Kelly Barnhill and Rebecca Stead!

The Lost Language by Claudia Mills
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The quest to save the words of a dying language – and to find the words to save what may be a dying friendship – lies at the heart of this exquisite verse novel.

Boy Everywhere by A.M. Dassu
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Boy, Everywhere chronicles the harrowing journey of Sami who is taken from Syria to the UK. From privilege to poverty, across countries and continents, from a smuggler’s den in Turkey to a prison in Manchester, it is a story of survival, of family, of bravery.

Spell Sweeper by Lee Edward Födi
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Magic is messy. Fans of Nevermoor and the School for Good and Evil will love this standalone middle grade fantasy featuring a failed young wizard and her chaotically fun cleanup crew.

Candidly Cline by Kathryn Ormsbee
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Candidly Cline follows an aspiring country singer-songwriter trying to find her voice as she navigates her family’s money troubles, a changing relationship with her grandmother, a difficult friendship breakup, and her first crush on a girl, while dreaming of her big break from her small Kentucky town.

Tidesong by Wendy Xu
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Tidesong follows an ambitious 12-year-old who moves to a seaside town with her aunts for an apprenticeship in magic and realizes that it may be more than she bargained for.

Gussy by Jimmy Cajoleas
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Perfect for fans of Kelly Barnhill and Anne Ursu, Gussy is an enchanting, lyrical middle grade novel about a girl who must protect her village from a menacing magical force, even as she discovers that there is more to her village than she knew.

Tangled up in Luck by Merrill Wyatt
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When seventh grade enemies research a missing set of jewels for a class project, they realize that the answers to the unsolved case might be much closer to home than they thought in this fun-filled mystery for fans of The Book Scavenger and Lemons.

The Art of Running Away by Sabrina Kleckner
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When Maisie reconnects with her estranged 22-year-old brother abroad while trying to save her family’s portrait studio, she uncovers a truth about her parents that changes everything.

I Know Your Secret by Daphne Benedis-Grab
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Pretty Little Liars meets One of Us Is Lying in this middle-grade tour de force. An exploration of why we conceal the truth, I Know Your Secret forces four children to come to terms with the secrets they have hidden from everyone.

The Last Weave Andrew Zurcher
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The epic conclusion to Twelve Nights, where Kay and Ell’s magical quest of imagination, adventure, and the power of storytelling comes to a thrilling, twisty close. Perfect for fans of The Golden Compass and A Wrinkle in Time.

Orphans of the Tide by Struan Murray
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Perfect for fans of Brightstorm and His Dark Materials, Orphans of the Tide is the story of a mysterious boy washing in with the tide and the city that believes he’s the Enemy – the god who drowned the world – come again to cause untold chaos.

Dark Hearts by Jim Gigliotti
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Sometimes the truth can be much scarier than fiction. And this collection is no exception. Uncover what fascinated and frightened some of our favorite horror writers of all time.

Girl Giant and the Jade War by Van Hoang
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In the sequel to Van Hoang’s outstanding Girl Giant and the Monkey King, Thom and her friends set off on a far-flung adventure to save the Heavens and the Jade Emperor from certain destruction.

Will you be picking up any of these middle grade releases? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Middle Grade Fiction Is Ending 2021 With A Bang appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Hello! I’m a Pakistani American author and interfaith activist, and I write for both adults and kids. I’m probably best known for the YASMIN series, which is an early reader series for young children. I’ve also published two middle grade novels in 2020, A PLACE AT THE TABLE (co-written with Laura Shovan) and A THOUSAND QUESTIONS. I currently live in Texas with my family.

When did you first discover your love for writing (and writing children’s books, specifically!)?

I’ve loved writing since I was in elementary school in Pakistan. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment that I discovered I was a storyteller, but it’s been a part of me for as long as I can remember. I never thought I’d make it my profession, though. South Asian parents tend to push their kids towards more serious careers like medicine or business, so writing was never a career choice for me. It was only when I migrated to the U.S, and became a mom, that I realized how white children’s books in the U.S. were. I wanted my kids to see themselves in the books they read, and to be the heroes of their stories, so I decided to write the Yasmin series.

Your new middle-grade novel, A Thousand Questions, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

That’s a difficult question for a writer, because we tend to use A LOT of words to describe every little thing! I’d say A Thousand Questions is about Finding Family in Unlikely Places.

Now tell us a little more! What can readers expect?

This is a story about two middle school girls who couldn’t be more different from each other if they tried. Mimi is a Pakistani American (like my own kids) who’s got no connection with her ancestors’ homeland. One summer, she’s dragged to visit her grandparents in Pakistan and expects everything to be horrible. Then she meets the cook’s daughter, Sakina, who’s her age but much wiser and disillusioned because of the hard life she’s lived. The two girls have impossible dreams – Mimi to find her long-absent journalist father, and Sakina to pass an English test so she can go to school – and they realize that by working together they can help each other achieve those dreams. During the course of the summer, Mimi and Sakina discover family, friendship and a beautiful Pakistan.

What inspired you to write this novel?

A few years ago I, like Mimi’s mother, dragged my kids to Pakistan to visit my family. Once there, I saw them go through a range of emotions and experiences. They hated some aspects of the place, but loved others. I think for the first time, they could feel connected to something in a way that they probably had never felt in the U.S. Their reactions were also very different from what I myself felt, because for me it was a homecoming whereas for them it was a revelation. That trip became the inspiration for A Thousand Questions.

Did the character arcs of Sakina and Mimi change throughout your drafting process, or did they turn out exactly how you imagined in the beginning?

I’m the kind of writer who doesn’t enjoy revising, so I try to make my first draft really clean. I do intensive outlining before I ever put my hands on the keyboard, and really think hard about what’s going to happen to each character, not just the main ones. I knew when I started what both of these girls’ stories would be, and how they would each find their paths during the book. The same goes for the secondary characters, such as Mimi’s mom and grandparents, and Sakina’s father.

The cover for A Thousand Questions is so beautiful, do you have any cool tidbits about the background or cover-creating process?

Thank you, I just adore the cover by artist Aaliya Jaleel! I wasn’t involved in the art process at all, so it came as a complete surprise to me. Having two brown girls on the cover, proud and confident, is a huge deal for someone who grew up never seeing herself on the cover of an English book. Even more stunning is the background, because it includes actual buildings in Karachi in silhouette. They’re the buildings I’d see every day on the way to school or visiting family on weekends. There’s even the cathedral that stood outside my convent school. This cover is so special to me, just like this book is, because it’s got so much of my essence and memories within it.

What do you hope readers will take away from reading A Thousand Questions?

My goal with this book was to explore what happens when first generation kids arrive in the motherland, how they cope with language and cultural barriers while essentially being “the same” as those who live there. I wanted kids like mine to read this book and find a little bit of their own conflicted emotions of being “neither here nor there” on the page. At the same time, I also wanted to highlight how incredible my birthplace of Karachi, Pakistan is. There are a lot of readers in the west who think of third world countries as horrible places, full of poverty and violence. I wanted to remove those misconceptions by showcasing the city I grew up in and the people who are a part of my heritage.

What’s next for you?

I’m working on several other books right now. Of course, the YASMIN series is ongoing, with new titles released in January 2021, and in 2022. There’s also my next middle grade novel YUSUF AZEEM IS NOT A HERO which is a 9/11 book from a Muslim family’s viewpoint. It’s told in dual perspective twenty years apart so that readers can see how the after-effects of the 9/11 attacks still reverberate in our society today.

Lastly, are you currently reading anything and do you have any book recommendations for our readers?

I read a lot of children’s books, and my current favorite is MY NAME IS A SONG by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow. I think everybody should read it. And in adult books I highly recommend THE BEAUTY OF YOUR FACE by Sahar Mustafah.

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