The idea for Naaz Khan’s debut picture book, Room for Everyone (S&S/Dlouhy), came to her on the island of Zanzibar, on a memorable minibus ride that she took to the beach. The minibuses, called daladalas, are famous for carrying anyone who needs a ride, and Khan and her friend found themselves unable even to see each other as more and more people crowded on. Illustrated by Spanish artist Mercè López, Khan’s tale about Musa and Dada, a brother and sister on a riotous daladala ride with an ever-growing throng of passengers and cargo, is a counting rhyme that’s simultaneously an exploration of another culture and a celebration of generosity and community.
Khan, who was born in India and raised in Saudi Arabia and California, was serving as a curriculum developer for a refugee organization in Kenya when she took that trip to Zanzibar. Some of the refugee children she worked with were alone, headed for placement with foster families in the U.S. They asked hard questions: Would they be safe? What would happen to girls who wore hijab? What if the police stopped them?
Often, there were no books that addressed their doubts, so Khan wrote her own. “I worked with a cartoonist called Melvin Ochieng,” she says. “I would talk through these stories with Melvin, and he would draw them.”
Khan tried to write in ways that reminded the children of their own strength and resilience. “They had treasure in them that was waiting to burst into color. We made recipe books—recipes for joy and peace and whatever else they were anxious they would lose.”
When they weren’t making comics, Ochieng pushed Khan to do more of her own work. “He was very encouraging,” Khan says. “I was his boss, but that didn’t make any difference. He would say, ‘Naaz, you’re creative! You have to unleash yourself!’ ”
Khan’s job in Kenya ended in 2016. She found another job in Cairo and started thinking more about her own writing. She spoke with friends about trying to get published. “It was just this dream. People asked me, ‘Why don’t you self-publish?’ I said, ‘I know that if I have other people help me, the story will be better.’ ”
She saw an open call by agents looking for Muslim voices. “I had this huge spreadsheet of people to contact with submissions,” she says. Lilly Ghahremani of Full Circle Literary was on the list. Khan sent Ghahremani a story—not Room for Everyone. Ghahremani wasn’t interested, but asked if Khan had anything else.
“I said, ‘I have this other story about siblings on a bus in Zanzibar,’ ” Khan recalls. “There was a lot of back and forth, and then she said, ‘I’d love to sign a contract with you. Are you looking for an agent?’ And I asked, ‘How much does an agent cost?’ She said, ‘You don’t pay an agent. They go on the ride with you.’ And I thought, ‘Someone believes in me enough to get on board with me? That’s something for the spirit.’ ”
Two publishers were interested in the book; Khan accepted Caitlyn Dlouhy’s offer. “She was a delight to work with,” Khan says of her editor. “She has the spirit of sunshine.”
Khan’s original verses, which were originally longer and more complicated, got trimmed and tightened. Readers from East Africa offered suggestions about words that needed to be rethought. And she says the illustrations dazzled her: “Mercè López... She’s magic. I’m so grateful for her, that she could bring it to life.”
The whole process unfolded while she was still overseas. “So much of this was happening while I was in Egypt. It was all by email. It felt so unreal. And then, when I entered the big Simon & Schuster building at last, it was like a warp in space-time.”
The response to Room for Everyone has been warm, with multiple starred reviews and appearances on several year-end best picture book lists. Khan is grateful for the success, and at the same time she’s thinking about how to get copies of the book into kids’ hands—not just in the U.S. but in Zanzibar, where the story was born. She’s already planning how to get copies there, passed from friend to friend.
Meanwhile, Khan is working on new projects: interfaith stories, stories that explore historical figures, and some that are simply for fun. “Two even have sing-along songs,” she says, “and there’s a song for Room for Everyone, as well.” (Listen to the song here.)
Khan’s current job, at the Open Book Foundation in Washington, D.C., gives her all kinds of opportunities to get creators together with kids in schools, “and to meet incredible authors!” she says. “They teach me what is possible not just for my own books, but for all books.”
