Shifa Saltagi Safadi – författare

From National Book Award winner Shifa Saltagi Safadi comes a gorgeous picture book about dreams, faith, and cats set during a young Muslim boy's pilgrimage to Mecca. Zayd’s heart wishes for one thing. During his family’s pilgrimage to Mecca, the place where dreams come true, Zayd prays for just that. But the purr-fect answer to his duaa slips through his fingers as quickly as it appears. This sets Zayd on an adventure around the Kaabah, the house of Allah. Will Zayd get what he wants? Find out in this joyful tale that’s: Written by National Book Award Winner Shifa Saltagi Safadi and gorgeously illustrated by Nabila Adani!Perfect for Ramadan: Millions of Muslims travel to Mecca to perform Umrah, the pilgrimage portrayed in this story, during Ramadan every year!A Must Have for Hajj Season: Celebrate the fifth pillar of faith with this book all Dhul Hijjah long! Universally Relatable: The themes of family, self-discovery, wish fulfillment, and love for animals will delight readers from all backgrounds.Feline Forward: Cat lovers will love searching for the cats on every page! An Engaging Educational Resource: Includes accessible backmatter ideal for educators, librarians, and readers interested in pilgrimages, Islam, and Mecca.

Meet Amina Banana! She’s a determined and clever third grader, and star of a new chapter book series with a STEM twist. Perfect for readers of The Questioneers and Junie B. Jones!Amina loves bananas, science, and all things yellow! Her family recently arrived from Syria to Indiana, and she's starting at a brand-new school in a brand-new country. She’s excited but also nervous, especially about making friends! But she develops the perfect formula to get everything just right:Speak English + wear a perfect outfit + be a good student + eat American food = Make American Friends!  When the first few days are harder than Amina imagined, she’s left worrying: why doesn't her formula add up?

Third-grader Amina Banana is back in book three of this chapter book series, navigating new responsibilities at home and growing financial stresses, from National Book Award winner Shifa Safadi.When Amina's family hits hard times, and her dad has been gone working more, she is determined to help her family out. Using her math skills, she develops a new formula.Find a way to make groceries cheaper? + make money (how) + what else? = us being happyFrom clipping coupons to selling zaatar sandwiches and more—will her formula to make money work?

The science fair kicks up a rivalry in book four of the delightful Amina Banana chapter book series from National Book Award-winner Shifa Safadi!Finally, the science fair is here, and Amina Banana is ready to showcase her skills. But when she is paired with someone unexpected, the science fair suddenly becomes . . . UNfair. All Amina wants to do is win the fair and impress her grandmother, who is visiting from Syria. Will Amina be able to develop a formula to help her work with her challenging partner?

This award-winning, heartfelt coming-of-age novel in verse tells the powerful story of a seventh-grade Syrian American boy and his struggles, big and small, as he navigates middle school. "The exact type of book I would've loved, and needed, as a kid." —Jasmine Warga, New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Honor recipient for Other Words for HomeSeventh grade begins, and Kareem’s already fumbled it.  His best friend moved away, he messed up his tryout for the football team, and because of his heritage, he was voluntold to show the new kid—a Syrian refugee with a thick and embarrassing accent—around school. Just when Kareem thinks his middle school life has imploded, the hotshot QB promises to get Kareem another tryout for the squad. There’s a catch: to secure that chance, Kareem must do something he knows is wrong.Then, like a surprise blitz, Kareem’s mom returns to Syria to help her family but can’t make it back home. If Kareem could throw a penalty flag on the fouls of his school and home life, it would be for unnecessary roughness.Kareem is stuck between. Between countries. Between friends, between football, between parents—and between right and wrong. It’s up to him to step up, find his confidence, and navigate the beauty and hope found somewhere in the middle.** Winner of the 2024 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature** Global Read Aloud Selection ** School Library Journal Best Middle Grade Book ** Chicago Public Library Best Fiction for Older Readers ** PEOPLE Magazine Best Kids Book ** Junior Library Guild Selection** Texas Lone Star Reading List selection ** Common Sense Media Selection for Families** Cybils Novel in Verse Award Winner** Jane Addams Children Book Award Finalist** ILA Notable Book for a Global Society** Bank Street's Best Children's Books of the Year**

**WINNER of the NATIONAL BOOK AWARD for Young People's Literature**This heartfelt coming-of-age novel in verse tells the powerful story of a seventh-grade Syrian American boy and his struggles, big and small, as he navigates middle school, now in paperback! "The exact type of book I would've loved, and needed, as a kid." — Jasmine Warga, New York Times bestselling author of and Newbery Honor recipient for Other Words for HomeSeventh grade begins, and Kareem’s already fumbled it.  His best friend moved away, he messed up his tryout for the football team, and because of his heritage, he was voluntold to show the new kid—a Syrian refugee with a thick and embarrassing accent—around school. Just when Kareem thinks his middle school life has imploded, the hotshot QB promises to get Kareem another tryout for the squad. There’s a catch: to secure that chance, Kareem must do something he knows is wrong.Then, like a surprise blitz, Kareem’s mom returns to Syria to help her family but can’t make it back home. If Kareem could throw a penalty flag on the fouls of his school and home life, it would be for unnecessary roughness.Kareem is stuck between. Between countries. Between friends, between football, between parents—and between right and wrong. It’s up to him to step up, find his confidence, and navigate the beauty and hope found somewhere in the middle.

A retelling of the Gift of the Magi, set against the backdrop of the Umayyad Masjid of Damascus, in this picture book from a National Book Award Winner.With Baba gone, Yasmine doesn’t have enough money to buy Mama’s Eid gift and can’t think of anything she wants for herself when Mama asks. While Mama’s haggling with the baker, she gets an idea. And after exchanging gifts with her mom in the Masjid, Yasmine realizes that true Eid joy comes from being together.Set in the famous Souq al-Hamidiyeh and the Umayyad Masjid of Damascus, this heartfelt story offers a Muslim background to one of the best-loved stories of all time.

From the National Book Award–winning author of Kareem Between comes a powerful novel in verse about two sisters trapped in a blizzard in a heart-wrenching story of sisterhood and survival.Two sisters. One storm. A fight for their lives. Rama is all fire—fierce, quick to anger, and trying to hold her family together while battling the monster of intrusive thoughts. Leena is all ice—quiet, numbed to the vibrancy of the world, as she silently blames herself for their mother’s death.When their father must travel for work, a sudden blizzard traps the sisters alone at their rural home. As the storm tears through their house, they’re left without power, without food, without shelter—and with no one to rely on but each other.Told in powerful, poetic verse, Sisters Alone is a heart-stopping story of sisterhood, survival, and the quiet strength it takes to keep going, even when the world feels like it's falling apart.