Hena Khan, the author of more than 30 books for young readers — including graphic novels like We Are Big Time, picture books like Crescent Moons and Pointed Minarets, and YA novels like Amina’s Voice — visited Charlotte Latin School on February 24 and spoke with the students of the Lower School (divided into three groups) in Anne’s Black Box. Speaking in the morning with second and third grade students, she told them, “If you don’t see something that you want to see in a story, you can absolutely write those stories.”

Khan began her presentation by discussing her personal history as a member of an immigrant family (her parents came to the United States from Pakistan, settling in Maryland) and as an avid reader: “I didn’t have a lot of camps or activities when I was growing up,” she explained, “but I had the library. I could come home with a bag full of books and feel rich in books.”

The lack she felt then and tries to rectify today was representation: “I struggled to find picture books that introduced my culture, my religion,” she said. She shared some excerpts from a picture book she wrote, It’s Ramadan, Curious George, and explained why the Ramadan feast in its pages includes not only traditional foods but pizza: “Sometimes we focus on what makes us different, but I like to include what makes us the same.”

Khan, whose visit was financed with support from Parents' Council, detailed the research she did for her recent book Behind My Doors, about the world’s oldest library, the Al-Qarawiyyin Library in Morocco, founded by Fatima Al-Fihri. To write the book, written from the POV of the library itself, she visited it in the city of Fez. Students were particularly fascinated by the room that housed the library’s most valuable manuscripts, protected by an ornate iron door that could not be opened without four different keys held by four different people.

Khan fielded questions from students that included queries about fasting (during Ramadan, she favors a big breakfast) and her favorite authors (Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, J .R. R. Tolkien). When she announced that in her next book about the fourth-grade student-athlete Zayd Saleem, the protagonist would be playing soccer in addition to basketball, the students broke into loud applause.

“I love learning what the kids are most excited by,” Khan said after the assembly. “Writing can be very solitary, but when you get to meet kids, their questions make it back into books.” Her underlying message: “I want to emphasize the importance of reading and scholarship. Anyone can be an author if you set your mind to it.”