Author Highlight: Farheen Khan
Farheen Khan, author of the Ali Series, spent her childhood in Canada with her Pakistani parents. She was a very creative child with a big imagination. She loved crafts and painting, but was not a big reader. She never imagined that one day she would become a writer.
As a child, she spent time visiting family in Pakistan. When got older she traveled throughout the Middle East and the United States. She got married and moved to Syria to study religion.
When her oldest son was just one-year-old, English books were scarce. The books they owned disintegrated from use because they were so well-loved! Farheen started to draw and write personalized books just for him.
She had two more children, and decided to homeschool them. She also had her hands full with running her crafting business.
As her children grew books became part of her home classroom. She would reward her children with books and punish them by taking their books away. She read everything her children read. As her children got older and the books they were reading became more advanced, negative ideas like toxic sibling rivalry and disrespect to parents, came up more and more. She found this concerning and wished for cleaner reading fun for her children.
When she bought her children Islamic books, they would read books once and never pick them up again. Yet they read popular mainstream books again and again.
“Why don’t you read the books with Islamic characters again?” she would ask.
“Because they’re boring,” was the answer.
Farheen had also read those books and she knew this was true.
She decided to try and make her own books and wrote her first two (the Ibrahim Khan Series). She hoped these books were interesting and engaging for young readers like her children.
After the Ibrahim Khan books, Farheen arrived at a crossroads in her life, either she would continue as an author or put her energy and time on her craft business. She decided to put her writing on hold and focus on her business.
About 10 years passed before Farheen started writing again. She wanted to write a book with characters with strong morals like loyalty, assuming good about others, and bravery. She researched popular book series and applied her observations to her writing. She wanted stories that were fun and relatable for children. She produced a five book series based on a well-meaning, trouble-magnet called Ali and his extraordinary adventures.
Her books have little bits of her childhood as a second-generation Pakistani girl growing up in Canada. The books are inspired by her children’s innovation, energy, and empathy, and spiced up with Ali’s out-of-this-world adventures.
Give your child reading entertainment you can trust to be clean. Ali’s adventures are sure to keep young readers coming back for more.
Click here to get your hands on the Ali Series!
