Sakina and the Uninvited Guests

Ages 4 to 8

From critically acclaimed author Zahra Marwan, a whimsical story about the power of art to connect us to the past and to each other.

When a sandstorm descends upon the city, Sakina and her mama forego their plans to visit the beach and head to the local museum instead. While Sakina yawns and scowls at the boring old relics, her mama's eyes keep filling with tears, moved by the details she recognizes: doesn't this look like my uncle? My mother used to have a ring like this.

But when it's finally time to leave the museum, Sakina returns home with something unexpected—and she begins to see the museum through her mother's eyes, full of art that humanizes our ancestors and reflects the essential, universal human need to be understood and remembered.

Here is a gorgeous, sweeping, and deeply moving picture book from the Ezra Jack Keats Honoree Zahra Marwan, creator of the NYT/NYPL Best Illustrated Book Where Butterflies Fill the Sky.

About the Author

Zahra Marwan is the author of Where Butterflies Fill the Sky, which has received notable acclaim including NPR's Best Books of 2022, The Society of Illustrators’ Dilys Evans Founders Award 2022, a NYT/NYPL Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award, and an Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator Honor Award. Zahra has also been recognized by the United Nations with a Minorities Artist Award on Statelessness, and SCBWI’s “Out of the Margins Award” 2022. She currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. zahramarwan.com