Naaz Khan
Educator. Author. Speaker. Magical Moment Seeker
ABOUT NAAZ
EDUCATION
BA Sociology of Religion, 2003
University of California, San Diego
Diploma, Refugee Studies, 2006
American University of Cairo
MA International Educational Development, 2008
Columbia University, Teachers College
Naaz Khan is an educator, writer, and life long learner with a background in refugee education, curriculum development, and interfaith dialogue. Her debut picture book, Room for Everyone came out November 9, 2021! She is represented by Lilly Ghahremani of Full Circle Literary.
She has lived in a number of places including Jubail, Cairo, Nairobi, Bangalore, Berkeley, San Diego, New York, and currently lives in the city of Washington DC.
Naaz works as an education coordinator at An Open Book Foundation, a literacy organization that connects young people in the DC area with authors, illustrators and books.
Other awesome places she has worked include Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe. Church World Service – Resettlement Support Center Africa, The Center for Applied Linguistics, University of Maryland – College Park, Montgomery Community College Refugee Training Center, Lutheran Social Services/Refugee and Immigrant Services and the International Rescue Committee. She has also served on the board of The Interfaith Conference of Washington, DC.
When she’s not reading or writing, Naaz loves exploring new places, going for walks in the woods, and tinkering around on her ukelele.
THE FUN STUFF
*****************************
If I had a super power...
I would beam myself from place to place. I love this tree in Rock Creek Park because it looks like a portal that can transport me from place to place.
If YOU had a super power, what would it be? If you could beam yourself somewhere, where would you go?
If I were an animal...
I would be a bird, and probably a finch. This is a picture of me as a kid, visiting a bird sanctuary. The bright colored birds are macaws. One of my favorite picture books about birds is If There Was One Thing I Could Be, written by Kalpana Subramanian (@kalpanasubramanian) and published by Little Lattitude. It’s about a kid who would like to be a bird.
If YOU were an animal what would you be?
If I were a color...
I would be bluish green, or greenish blue. This is me in a place called Chefchaoen, which is famous for it’s blue painted buildings. Can you guess what country Chefchaoen is in?
If YOU were a color, what would you be?
Home is...
My mom says “home is where the heart is” and my heart feels connected to a number of different places. Here are some books that are set in places where I have lived and where my heart feels connected to.
Can you guess which books match up with which places? Scroll down for the answer
The Book Match Answers!
1. WE MARCH is the true story of how people got together and created change by speaking out for equality and marching in the city of ….WASHINGTON DC. (In the United States). Washington DC is where I live. Did you know that DC stands for District of Columbia and that it is not a state? I hope it will be one day.
2. HOW MANY DONKEYS? is a funny story based on the folktale character Jouha. This particular story is set in the country where one of the authors is from – the country of…SAUDI ARABIA. I lived and went to school in the city of Jubail from when I was a baby until the 6th grade.
3. WE’RE SAILING DOWN THE NILE is a fun rhyming book that takes readers on a journey to visit Abu Simbel, Aswan and Cairo, cities which are in the country of…EGYPT! I’ve lived in Cairo, Egypt at 3 different times in my life.
4. MAMA MITI by Donna Jo Napoli and Kadir Nelson is a book about the Nobel prize winning environmental activist superhero Wangari Maathai who is from the country of…KENYA. I used to live in Nairobi, Kenya while working for a refugee resettlement organization.
5. OLIVER is a silly funny story about a tree that lives in the Sequoia National Forest which is in the state of…CALIFORNIA – (In the United States) I used to live in Berkeley, California, and went to high school in Oakland California, and to college in San Diego, California.
6. THE SHEEP OF LAL BAGH, by David Mark and Lionel Kalish is a book about a sheep named Ramesh who is worried that people don’t need him anymore because of a new machine (a lawnmower). He lives in a park called Lal Bagh, which in Hindi means Red Garden and is a real park in the city of…Bangalore, in INDIA. I was born in India and have lots of family in Bangalore.