Bahram Rahman grew up in Kabul, Afghanistan, during the civil war and the Taliban regime. He graduated with a medical degree from Kabul Medical University and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Erfurt, Germany. Rahman came to Canada as a refugee in 2012 and now works for the Ontario Ministry of Health as a senior policy advisor.
Fiction (Juvenile, Picture book)
If You See a Bluebird
Bahram Rahman & [illustrated by] Gabrielle Grimard.
Toronto: Pajama Press, 2023.
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
Although his family is safe in their new country, Ali finds himself wishing he could go back to Afghanistan. A day spent picking blackberries with Nana reminds him of their old house with the mulberry tree he loved, and the day the soldiers came. He recalls their nighttime flight and the crowded buses and airplane that took him to this beautiful but unfamiliar place. When Ali and Nana spot a bluebird, she tells him to make a wish. Ali wishes to go home, but, as he comes to learn, home is not a place. Home is the love his family has for each other.
Fiction (Juvenile, Picture book)
The Library Bus
Illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard.
Toronto: Pajama Press, 2020.
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
It is still dark in Kabul, Afghanistan when the library bus rumbles out of the city. There are no bus seats—instead there are chairs and tables and shelves of books. And there are no passengers—instead there is Pari, who is nervously starting her first day as Mama’s library helper. Pari stands tall to hand out notebooks and pencils at the villages and the refugee camp, but she feels intimidated. The girls they visit are learning to write English from Mama. Pari can’t even read or write in Farsi yet. But next year she will go to school and learn all there is to know. And she is so lucky. Not long ago, Mama tells her, girls were not allowed to read at all.
Awards and Honours
2021 Governor General’s Literary Award, Young People’s Literature (Illustrated books), English language (Finalist)
Fiction (Juvenile, Picture book)
A Sky-Blue Bench
Illustrated by Peggy Collins.
Toronto: Pajama Press, 2021.
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
It”s Afghani schoolgirl Aria”s first day back at school since her accident. She”s excited, but she”s also worried about sitting on the hard floor all day with her new prosthetic “helper-leg.”
Just as Aria feared, sitting on the floor is so uncomfortable that she can’t think about learning at all. She knows that before the war changed many things in Afghanistan, schools like hers had benches for students to sit at. If she had a bench, her leg would not hurt so much. The answer is obvious: she will gather materials, talk to Kaka Najar, the carpenter in the old city, and learn to build a bench for herself.
Awards and Honours
2022 ALA Schneider Family Book Award (Honor Book Winner)
Links
Publisher Pajama Press