(1) 4-6 Nayeri’s stirring historical novel—emotionally rich, suspenseful, and profound—sheds light on a lesser-known front of World War II: Iran, a neutral country occupied by both British and Soviet forces. Thirteen-year-old Babak and his younger sister, Sana, have been recently orphaned and are facing separation. Their bold decision to escape this fate propels them into a gripping tale of resilience and survival. The two first attempt to join a group of Bakhtiari nomads but are soon turned away. As they journey across the Zagros Mountains, the siblings encounter a threatening German spy and a prickly Jewish boy who is fleeing the Nazis, and their fates intertwine. Nayeri’s prose is lush and evocative, capturing the stark beauty of Iran’s mountainous landscapes as well as the traditions, languages, and beliefs that define its people. Along with vivid characterization, the novel balances action and introspection, weaving in issues of faith, identity, and empathy without slowing momentum. This poignant, often heart-wrenching narrative (despite occasional historical inaccuracies) offers readers a profound lesson in the power of communication, cross-cultural and cross-lingual understanding, and kindness. With a blackboard strapped to his back and a satchel full of books, Babak becomes a meaningful symbol of education as a bridge between people and cultures. Timely and unforgettable.

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2026

(2) K-3 Rose's grandfather is a rug weaver, working mornings in a factory and weaving in the afternoon for friends and family on his at-home loom. Rose loves watching Baba joon's deft hands tie thousands of knots that become a beautiful garden of wool. Taking inspiration from their own garden, Rose draws a design for a rug, which Baba joon cheerfully agrees to teach her to weave. The two make colorful dyes from the garden -- using poppies for red, saffron for yellow, roses for pink, and indigo for blue. Then they dry the dyed yarn in their sunny courtyard. They work side by side, day after day, Baba joon knotting "quickly, quickly" and Rose "slowly, slowly," until one day he falls ill. Rose decides to finish the half-done rug, envisioning the two of them having tea in the garden together, sitting on the rug after it is completed. When Baba joon gets better, roles reverse as Rose now ties quickly and Baba joon more slowly. Kheiriyeh's affectionate narrative of intergenerational love, learning, and appreciation of beauty is based on her own experience with her beloved grandfather in Iran and the artistry of his craft. Textured illustrations in oil and acrylics lean into the natural color palette, while details such as furnishings and architectural elements add atmosphere.

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2025

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Vesper Stamper. A boy in Isfahan, Iran, learns how to design and make a rug with his grandmother. The new rug will replace the old frayed one in the main room of the house, which the boy’s grandmother made with her grandmother. The young narrator learns about rug-making, from shearing sheep to carding and spinning wool, dying yarn, and drafting a design from local design motifs of personal significance. Though the boy fixates on the idea of perfection and wants to make “the best rug in the world,” his grandmother gently suggests that the flaws are what make the rug beautiful. Depictions of Persian rugs are central to the soft-hued watercolor illustrations: a colorful, intricately designed rug is shown in use on the floor, while the new rug is shown on the loom, contrasting the beauty and usefulness of the finished product with the painstaking method of creating it. In this tender story, creating a rug becomes not just a moment when traditions can be passed down from one generation to the next but also an example of the beauty of the process and of the importance of family relationships. An author’s note gives more information on Persian and Middle Eastern rug-making

Reviewer: Julie Hakim Azzam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Susie Ghahremani. Memory and connections with the "old country" can be important parts of the experience for immigrant families. In this story, a young girl helps her Iranian (as identified in the back matter) grandmother, Nana, tend her garden, while relishing "the stories she tells me about a garden she knows far away." As the two plant and water geraniums, Nana shares tales of "back home," even though the girl doesn't "know where 'back home' is." There were tall cypress trees, fragrant jasmine, lilac, and hyacinth; there was a fishpond, and fruit trees including cherry, mulberry, and pomegranate. Gouache illustrations on vellum represent a modest Western garden in contrast with the lusher, bursting garden of Nana's memories on the facing page. Paisley, floral, and other distinctly traditional Persian designs adorn the pages in saffron yellows, minty greens, and radish-y reds. These embellishments make a visual connection between Nana's new home and her "back home" memories; the book's playful endpapers also capture this design aesthetic. In this gentle tale, stories are like plants that grow in the girl's imagination, taking root to bloom into cultural pride and intergenerational connection. Author and illustrator notes discuss the importance of gardens for many Iranians as well as the importance of cultural transmission.

Reviewer: Julie Hakim Azzam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2024

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Lindsey Yankey. A little girl and her father explore his hometown of Isfahan in Iran. They visit the ruins of a fire temple at dawn and meet her father's friend in his Jewish neighborhood, then meet up with another friend near the centuries-old Vank church. At the city center, the girl is awed by the grand palace and mosques and reflects on how the "lace-shaped windows" of the mosque mirror the arcs in the synagogue, church, and temple. They make their way to her father's house, past the coppersmith's bazaar, where her father laughingly recalls childhood antics. At home, they are greeted by his grandmother and his former nanny, who shares some freshly baked sangak bread. Later, they sit down for a winter's meal of chicken and rice with walnut and pomegranate sauce before sleep and dreams take over. This nostalgic story is framed through Isfahan's historical monuments and the interiors of the father's house. The mixed-media illustrations are in a muted palette with bright pops of color -- tiles, fabrics, household decorations. A glimpse into the rich architecture, cuisine, and interreligious history of Iran, this is also an ode to a cherished childhood and a shared past with people of different faiths. An author's note makes personal connections; a glossary is also appended.

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2024

(2) K-3 "For a perfect Yalda Night, you need a pomegranate." No sooner does young Pouya find one than the wind plucks it from his hand. The fruit falls and rolls to Rabbit, who takes a few seeds and then passes it to Bear; who takes a few and passes it to Fox; who shares what's left with her kits. Pouya is sad to miss out on "a perfect Yalda Night" but is happy that his loss is the other creatures' gain -- a selfless sentiment noted by the wind, who rewards him for his generosity. The story's pleasing pattern and satisfying ending will be enjoyable to readers familiar with the ancient Persian solstice celebration and those just learning about it. "Yalda means birth in Syriac-Aramaic and refers to the triumph of light over darkness," and the illustrations, in wintry hues, exude warmheartedness.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2024

(3) PS Illustrated by Ly Ngo Heisig. This ABC book introduces readers to Persian cuisine. Each page includes a drawing of the dish and its name in both English transliteration and Persian; the boldly colored, simply designed pages allow the digitally created drawing of the dish to stand out. Concluding pages include a description of each food and a pronunciation guide. This is an inviting and unique resource for Iranian children or those interested in the culture.

Reviewer: Rachel L. Kerns

(1) K-3 Theatrical scenes in pomegranate reds and peacock greens introduce readers to a young, precocious Googoosh, born Faegheh Atashin, performing in the 1950s with her acrobat father and captivating audiences with her singing. Her rise to stardom and voice "swelling in our hearts like the waves of our beloved Caspian Sea" become inextricably tied to the comfort of culture and home for the people of Iran. But the 1979 revolution shutters performance halls and outlaws women's singing voices. Stark spreads stripped of color depict turmoil as fleeing Iranians are "scattering across the world like windblown poppies," their faces shown as disconnected from anything else. These displaced Iranians live quietly, like Googoosh herself, until her return to performing finally gives people a chance to "bear witness" to memory, homeland, yearning, and joy. Complex and painstaking illustrations -- tea-dyed paper, block prints of hand-carved stamps, brush pens, colored pencils, and collages of paper and cardboard -- showcase the art as a clear labor of love. The text is lyrically and sensorially evocative, conveying devotion to country and pain of separation, and even the use of the second person mimics the formal method of reverence in Farsi. An author's note, additional information about Googoosh, photographs, and sources are appended.

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2025

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Maya Fidawi. Samira, a young Iranian girl, is accompanying her grandmother, Mama Shamsi, to the outdoor market for the first time. As they walk through the streets of Tehran, Samira playfully proposes various ways that she can hide under Mama Shamsi’s chador so that she won’t get lost at the big, crowded, noisy market. Each time she does so, the long, black, cape-like garment takes on the shape of a different animal, to her grandmother’s mock dismay. The joshing gives way to an empowering conclusion, as Mama Shamsi affirms Samira’s ability to confidently explore and navigate the world around her. The book reflects the authors’ own childhood experience of the often-disparaged chador as a source of safety and comfort. Digital illustrations chock-full of interesting, culturally authentic details wrap this story up nicely.

Reviewer: Summer Edward

(1) YA In this verse novel set in 2001, tenth grader Omid Soltani isn't comfortable in his own skin. As the child of Iranian immigrants living in Arizona, he feels foreign at school (especially in the post-9/11 climate), but never Persian enough with his family. When his grandparents arrive from Iran and he meets them in person for the first time, he feels "frozen in Farsi" with his stilted fluency, isolated from the very people with whom he most wants a connection. He finds a welcome distraction in being cast as Bottom in the school's production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, but gets the most laughs when he plays Bottom's lines in his father's accented English, mocking his own culture for a primarily white audience and underscoring why Shakespeare would create a comical, lovable character and "make him a monster" for entertainment. As Omid grows, he learns to find his voice in his own interpretation of Shakespeare and in rap music that uniquely expresses his experiences. Shahi's poetic form sometimes mirrors the subject matter (a music playlist, a theatrical dialogue, a rap flow); there are many underline-worthy lines of free verse. An unpredictable development in the conclusion may have readers reaching for a tissue (and a comforting playlist). This is a compelling coming-of-age story about finding your own voice and holding on to hope in the face of uncertainty and doubt.

Reviewer: Julie Hakim Azzam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2023

(2) K-3 Nowruz is a celebration of the end of winter and the start of a new year. For the three boys and their fathers in this story, a visit to what appears to be an ­Iranian bathhouse is an essential part of the preparations: "Everyone wants to be clean for the new year." While the fathers soak in large pools and snack on ­watermelon and other treats, the boys are distracted by loud noises, ripped towels, and broken pumice stones on the floor. Their imaginations run wild, and they suspect that a Div, a monster "with big horns! And big, dirty feet!" may be in residence. A menacing shadow, to everyone’s relief, seemingly reveals itself to be a harmless cat. The notion that a monster could be in the bathhouse seems preposterous, but there are plenty of hints in the lively digital illustrations to suggest that perhaps there really is one. In this delightful story, everyone, from kids to cats to monsters, celebrates the new year. An author's note provides further information on Nowruz and its traditions.

Reviewer: Julie Hakim Azzam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2022

(2) 4-6 Photographs by Anna Bosch Miralpeix. "When home is lost and a new one not yet found, children are sent to the Waiting Place." In this powerful photo-essay, the Waiting Place is the Katsikas refugee camp in Greece, which Nayeri and ­Miralpeix visited in 2018. Katsikas is supposed to be a temporary home for refugees from Afghanistan and Iran, but as Nayeri describes in her poetic text, the camp is a "gated mouth" that children pass through and then drift while time slips away. "They forget things: first their sums, their street names, their best books. Then beloved faces, stories.”" Miralpeix's photographs effectively set the "field of shipping crates turned into homes" against a contrasting background of blue skies and misty mountains, highlighting Katsikas's harsh conditions. Nayeri personifies the Waiting Place as a beast hungry for more lives, and the strength of the volume is its focus on real children, including five-year-old Matin from Afghanistan, his friends Ahmad and Hashmat, and his ten-year-old sister Mobina and her friends. Both text and photos compassionately humanize young refugees who, despite coping with unimaginable trauma, have talents and dreams; readers will come away with a deeper understanding of the refugee crisis, which is addressed more fully in a lengthy afterword. A glossary and an author's note are appended.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2022

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Nahid Kazemi. On a visit to her grandfather's house the day after his death, a young girl recalls their many connections, despite a language barrier. Baba Bozorg spoke Farsi (he had been a poet in Iran); the narrator speaks only English. The girl walks through her grandfather's house, describing him and the time they spent together. She searches the pockets of clothes hanging in his closet because he was a reliable source of mints, but finds nothing. She notices his empty teacup sitting next to his samovar and recalls that he liked fig cookies and always offered one to her. Even though she didn't like them, "I always took one because we didn't share many words." Each object, each room, reminds her of their shared routines. Kazemi's illustrations have a soft, filmy quality that suits a story about memories. Distances between objects are sometimes elongated, sometimes shortened--a staircase to Baba Bozorg's bedroom looks lonely as the child heads up to face an empty room, but is a warmer, more friendly place when she descends wearing his slippers. The first-person narration, filled with childlike details and tender emotions, reinforces the equally childlike perspective of the delicate art.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2022

(2) YA Framed loosely as his twelve-year-old self's responses to a series of school assignments, Nayeri's fictionalized memoir swirls through his own memories as well as stories from his family history, circling around major events and pausing to include his Oklahoma classmates' reactions to his tales of early childhood in Iran. This structure means the story takes some time to pick up speed--which it does once it goes into more focused detail about Nayeri's family's journey: their quick escape from Iran after his mother's life was threatened because she had converted to Christianity; his father's decision to stay behind. The buildup comprises tangent upon tangent--Nayeri alludes frequently to Scheherazade's stringing together of stories in the 1,001 Nights--but those tangents are absorbing and full of universalizing detail and humor (there's more than one poop anecdote). This tale is constantly focused on its telling, with references to an imagined audience and reminders of who characters are. The actual audience is a bit of a puzzle, as the twelve-year-old narrator's tale spans a wide range of ages in his life and those of his family members, and the overall sensibility seems more adult than not. An author's note acknowledges the fallibility of memory as well as some deliberate alterations; it is, as Nayeri puts it, "both fiction and nonfiction at the same time."

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2020

(2) K-3 Translated by Azita Rassi. Illustrated by Marjan Vafaeian. Persian merchant Mah Jahan collects birds and keeps them "in cages...so that they couldn't...leave her." When her favorite, a parrot, asks her to visit its former colony in India, she does and is shocked when one of the wild birds drops dead. Back home, Mah Jahan tells her parrot what happened--and it drops dead. But it's a ruse: the parrot's friends sent "a story...to teach me how to escape." A thought-provoking, visually striking retelling originally published in Tehran.

Reviewer: Julie Hakim Azzam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2019

(3) YA Foreword by Firoozeh Dumas. Born to a French mother and Iranian father, Homayoonfarar moved from the U.S. to Iran in 1976 at age five. Short chapters follow the author's coming of age amid the abrupt cultural changes and turbulent historical backdrop of the Iranian Revolution and war with Iraq. Temporal shifts are sometimes hard to follow in this otherwise moving and relatable memoir. Includes an insert of family snapshots. Timeline.

Reviewer: Julie Hakim Azzam

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Lindsey Yankey. The narrator recalls her childhood growing up in Iran. The child accompanies her grandma on her daily routines, including spending time with friends; as Grandma and her best friend laugh, drink coffee, and knit blankets for their mosque and church, respectively, the children (and readers) witness a beautiful interfaith friendship. Yankey's muted illustrations work well to convey cherished memories and love, with thoughtful cultural details incorporated throughout.

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2019

(2) K-3 Kheiriyeh bases her entertaining, heartfelt story on memories of family outings to the beach. Narrator Rashin compares the (sex-segregated) beach in her birthplace of Iran to her new beach in Brooklyn; she especially misses her best friend and saffron ice cream. A sensory text evokes the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes experienced along the journey from each home to the beach. The textured oil and acrylic illustrations are bright and colorful, with context-setting touches.

Reviewer: Aishah Abdul-Musawwir | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2018

(2) YA Sophomore Darius Kellner struggles with clinical depression, disconnection from the Persian half of his heritage, and constant awareness of his (white) father's disappointment in him. While visiting his grandparents in Iran, Darius meets Sohrab, a Bahá'i young man, and a tender and natural friendship begins. Khorram's debut novel is an affectionate portrait of Iran and an exploration of understanding one's identity--both personally and culturally.

Reviewer: Katrina Hedeen | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2018

(3) YA This funny, engaging memoir focuses on the Iranian American author's teenage years after she discovers that she and her family are undocumented immigrants. Despite her fear of deportation, Saedi was equally preoccupied with the trappings of teenage life: finding a boyfriend, achieving clear skin, and keeping her unibrow at bay. Saedi's irreverent voice buoys a warm story of an immigrant family's adjustment to American life. Black-and-white snapshots are interspersed throughout.

Reviewer: Kristy Pasquariello