Today we’re delighted to reveal the cover for Sister Friend by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow, illustrated by Shahrzad Maydani! The book was designed by Heather Kelly, edited by Erica Finkel and Courtney Code, and will be released on May 7, 2024 by Abrams Books for Young Readers. Preorder it here, here, or here.
Ameena feels invisible in her all-white class. It’s been that way since she started at her new school. But now there is another new girl in class. Ameena sees her—sees her brownness and her hijab, like the one she wears to masjid—even though the other kids do not. Ameena wants to be her friend, but she can’t seem to find the right words or do the right things. Until one day, they find them together: “Assalamu Alaikum, Sister. Welcome.”
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Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow, M.S.Ed, is a Philadelphia-based educator and critically-acclaimed children’s book author. Her picture books and middle grade fiction center young Black and Muslim protagonists and include Your Name Is a Song, Abdul’s Story, Grounded, and Salat in Secret. Find her at https://jamilahthewriter.com.
Shahrzad Maydani is an illustrator of Iranian-English descent, raised in Niger and Kenya. Her debut children’s book Poetree received the Crystal Kite Award and was a Spring 2019 Kids’ Indie Next selection. Her following book Bird Boy by Matthew Burgess was honored as a Junior Library Guild selection and her next, Francis Discovers Possible, was selected by The Children’s Book Committee as one of 2023’s Best Children’s Books of the Year. You can follow her on Instagram at @shahrzadmaydani.
