Sour Cherries: An Afghan Family Story
By (Author) Dezh Azaad
Illustrated by Nan Cao
Abrams
Abrams Books for Young Readers
23rd May 2024
United States
Children
Fiction
Childrens / Teenage general interest: Cooking and food
Childrens / Teenage social topics: Migration / refugees
Hardback
32
Width 267mm, Height 216mm, Spine 14mm
200g
My favorite day is in the summer, picking cherries with my mother. Sour Cherries follows a summer day as an Afghan child learns to make sour cherry jam, stew, and tea with his mother, just like she learned from her mother. Pull the stem, pop the seed-together, they carefully prep their family dishes while sharing stories of his grandmother and the place they come from. Inspired by the author's life, this warmhearted companion to The Carpet: An Afghan Family Story celebrates the taste of home.
Dezh Azaad is an Afghan writer whos been a refugee his whole life. He lives in Germany, where he teaches Persian to refugee children and leads seminars for teens and young adults on social change, race, and the climate crisis. Azaad loves tinkering with electronics and cooking meals that take five hours to make and five minutes to eat. He is the author of The Carpet: An Afghan Family Story. Nan Cao is a New York-based illustrator. Her work is inspired by surrealistic imagery and her daily life in the big city. When she is not drawing, Cao loves to hang out with the squirrels in the park, daydream under the sun, or get lost in her book collection. She has worked with clients such as Johns Hopkins Magazine, Anorak Magazine, Link NYC, Bulletin Magazine, Spectrum, and Washingtonian magazine. Cao holds an MFA in illustration as visual essay from the School of Visual Arts. Her work has been recognized by American Illustration, Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, AOI, 3x3, and Creative Quarterly.