Zakia Iman Shahbaz, an American, is a retired teacher with a Master's degree in Education and a Major in Art,. who taught for many years in public and private schools and traveled to many countries in the Middle East. She is realizing her dream of writing and illustrating stories about Muslim children with broad universal appeal to readers of all religions and cultures. Specifically, she hopes to contribute to cross-cultural understanding. All of the illustrations were done by her.