 KLiC: What was your inspiration for Abdullah's Bear Needs a Name? YH: The inspiration for the book title came from the story behind the book. During the pandemic, I started working with a primary school in the west of Scotland. About 90% of the school’s pupils at that time were from an ethnic minority background but the pupils didn’t see themselves as the main character in books and didn’t use their own names in creating stories in class. Names, which were from their own culture, community, religion, or heritage. I remember one of the teachers telling me that the children had been putting together a list of teddy bear names for a raffle and had chosen predominantly European names like Jack, Alan and Sarah. Not one of those children had picked a name like their own such as Anum, Omar or Fauzia. This anecdote became crucial to the school developing a project called ‘We Can Be Heroes’ where myself and two other writers worked with the pupils to help create stories where those children saw themselves in the books they read and were the heroes of those stories. My time at the school was also the inspiration for both the story and title of my book, Abdullah’s Bear Needs A Name!, about a boy called Abdullah who gets gifted a teddy bear passed down through generations, but he can’t find the right name for the bear until one day he hears an old story about his Dadaji (granddad).  KLIC: What are your favorite illustrations in the book? YH: I can’t praise Sophie Benmouyal, who is the illustrator of the book enough! She’s done such a terrific job and really brought the story to life more than I could have imagined. There are so many favourite illustrations to pick from! I think every spread where Abdullah is holding the bear you can see the love on his face. I really valued the collaborative process with my publishers in terms of the illustrations where I was asked for my opinion and feedback which was then given to Sophie who would then go ahead and do the illustrations based on that. I think this makes the book more authentic and richer in cultural experience and really goes that extra mile. For example, the detail on the shalwar kameez (clothes that the characters are wearing), the Pakistani food, the shops on the street, etc. But one of my favourite illustrations is where Abdullah asks his Abba to tell him a bedtime story. The details are wonderfully done and this was based on my own experience visiting Pakistan. A fun fact, Sophie started to research into her own Moroccan heritage for the book’s illustrations, so the book really is a piece of so many people’s heart – their experiences, stories, culture and histories. KLIC: What's the one thing you want children to take away from your book? YH: I want children to believe that they are worthy of being the central character in books. I want them to develop confidence and believe in themselves. For a long time growing up, I believed that only those who looked a certain way were worth reading about. I hope Abdullah’s Bear Needs A Name! will help change that perception and encourage all children to believe that they are important and worth reading and writing about, no matter who they are. Abdullah's Bear Needs a Name! releases in February 2026, but you can learn more or pre-order here.  Yasmin Hanif is a British-Pakistani author, poet and educator from a Muslim background. She worked on the 'We Can Be Heroes' project, which tackled the lack of diversity in children's literature and won several UK awards. Yasmin's debut picture book Abdullah's Bear Needs a Name! is inspired by this project. She lives in the west of Scotland, UK.
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 We are so excited to host debut picture book author Moniza Hossain! Her picture book, Street Puppy, Masjid Cat releases on October 7th. It is illustrated by Wastana Haikal. Read more below: What was your inspiration for Street Puppy, Masjid Cat? I was looking after my sister’s dog when I wrote this book. Every evening, we would go for a walk past our neighborhood mosque, and the dog was absolutely obsessed with the cat that lived in the mosque. He would sit at the gate and cry while the cat glared out at him. Needless to say, his love was not reciprocated. I decided to write him a happier ending in my book, where a dog and a cat find common ground in an unlikely friendship. I love the fact that cats often live in mosques and I’ve always thought that a picture book about this unique cultural phenomenon would be cute and sweet. Serendipitously, the universe threw a mosque cat story in my lap. I think this was a story that was always meant to be written. There are so many misconceptions about Islam and Muslims, and this story gave me the perfect opportunity to shed some light on the importance of kindness in my religion. Please tell us about your writing process. How long did it take you to write and sell this book? I tend to write my picture books very quickly. Once inspiration strikes, I can usually have the story drafted in about three days. The first few lines of this book (which have not changed since I wrote them) came to me while I was walking the dog. I took my phone out and dashed the lines out in the notes app. I built on those lines once I got back home and then shared the draft with my critique partners. I did a few more rounds of edits and then sent the manuscript off to my agent. I don’t remember how long it took for the book to sell, but my editor came back with a R&R fairly quickly. She wanted me to flesh out the friendship arc within the story a little bit more. Once I did that, she took the manuscript to acquisition, and the book sold. What are your favorite illustrations in the book? It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that I love every page of this book. I had the honor of working on this story with Wastana Haikal, who is a brilliant Indonesian artist, and he brought the story to such vivid life with his exuberant, colorful art that it took my breath away when I first saw it. My favorite page is probably the page that introduces the two main characters, because their distinct personalities leap off the page so charmingly. The dog is sweet, the cat a little naughty. You get a peek at the setting of the story; the Southeast Asian city the stray dog roams about in and the beautiful mosque the cat lives in. The book is rife with cultural details that add to the beauty of the tale. -- Moniza Hossain is a Singaporean author of Bengali descent who writes children’s books inspired by her heritage. Her debut picture book, Street Puppy Masjid Cat, is coming out in October of 2025 with Little Bee Books, and her sophomore picture book, Ritu In The Sun, will be published by Random House Children’s Books in 2026. She also writes books for middle-grade readers. Her middle-grade debut, The Fear Factory, will be published by Holiday House Books in 2026. She has a short story in the award winning anthology Being Ace, and another in an anthology entitled The Beasts Beneath the Winds, that will be published in the fall of 2025 with Abrams. When she’s not busy writing, she teaches English literature and paints dragons. Follow her at: Twitter: @moniza_hossain Instagram: @monizahossain  |
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