My fondest memories of childhood are of the times spent playing with my sister, brother, cousins and friends. We called ourselves the Fantastic Five, inspired by Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven.
We also traveled a lot. Our parents would take us on many trips around the world every summer. But our greatest adventures took place when we braved Herman Melville’s rough seas, rode Raffi’s emerald highlands, and imagined L. Frank Baum’s Oz on the beaches of Kuwait and in the leafy villages of Lebanon.
Later, my two children and I continued these fantastic voyages of discovery through literature. While raising my children I also studied journalism at the Lebanese American University where I was able to deepen my knowledge of the history and traditions of storytelling in the Middle East. By the time I graduated, I realized that my greatest joy in life is to share the experience of telling stories with children, and that I would like to commit my life to nurturing the excitement of learning about history and the environment as well as inspire the thrill of storytelling among children.
The Little Cedar Tree is my first picture book. It’s a story I wished to read as a child when we had to leave Lebanon due to the Civil War, and I missed my home. It is now a part of a literature reader for 5th graders across the Middle East North Africa region. Writing The Little Cedar Tree made me realize that I needed to learn and peruse literature more, I attended the graduate English Literature program at the American University of Beirut. My thesis explored how the stories we read shape us.
Currently, home is the beautiful and vibrant city of Toronto. Where I’ll be exploring the fascinating Canadian natural landscape, and continue to write and illustrate stories.
