Finding sunshine – Maryam Hassan's story about finding light

Maryam Hassan’s debut story about a little girl finding her way back to light was inspired by teaching children in new lands

Until You Find the Sun was inspired by a chill reality – Maryam Hassan was teaching in cold and grey Chicago in midwinter when a little girl joined her Montessori elementary school. A recent arrival from South India, she was having trouble adjusting. “If you come from there to Chicago, with a polar vortex winter, that is a very large seasonal difference,” she says. “And the points where she was having a hard time adjusting were when she had to go outside to play.”

To Maryam Hassan, this little girl’s sensory bewilderment was completely understandable – how could she process such a huge change at such a young age? She wrote the very first draft of Until You Find the Sun siting parked up in her car – it just came to her, and she had to write it down. It’s a poignant tale about Aminah, a little girl whose life is full of “sparkles”, living in a close-knit community full of gold and yellow – from sunshine and kindly salaams to sweet mangoes.

Finding sunshine – Maryam Hassan's story about light — Aminah’s world loses its sparkle in a cold and strange land – until she acquires a sunshine yellow coat

Then her family prepare her for the journey to a new land, but her beloved grandfather, Da, who has always told her tales of epic adventures in far off lands, will not be coming with them. On arrival in the new place – a cold and wintery city that could be Chicago – Aminah loses her sparkle, overwhelmed by the greyness of it all. That is, until she spots a bright yellow duffle coat in a shop and her Mama buys it for her. This new sparklingly yellow coat gives her hope and the next morning she awakens to a clear blue sky with sun reflecting off the white snow and goes out to play. Then she is able to call her Da and tell him of her own adventures in this far-off land.

The text is evocatively illustrated by Anna Wilson, capturing the journey through dark to light. While Hassan is a photographer and painter, as well as a teacher, she knew her story was in safe hands as soon as she saw the wonderful sample illustration from Wilson. “I do paint, but I do not think I could illustrate a book ever in my life,” she says. “The only input I had given was how I wanted the family members, to look. What I find in media is that when South Asians are represented, they are very light skinned and, in our families, we are all a mix of different kinds of skin tones.”

“I really wanted to be able to write picture books that help children find comfort in their new surroundings”

As a first-generation child of Pakistani immigrants in London, and someone who has taught many children who have joined her classes unable to speak English, Maryam Hassan is really inspired by the idea of helping with transitions. “I was thinking about struggles that children face, especially young children, when they move countries,” she says. “We have this assumption that when children are young, they kind of forget about things because they move on very quickly, but I don’t think that’s true. I really wanted to be able to write picture books that help children find comfort in their new surroundings.”

She recalls that in her own ’90s childhood in London she couldn’t find any media that represented what she looked like or what she was going through – she found her outlet in Western culture, including punk. (She still loves punk.) These days, she reads a lot of fiction, including Young Adult fiction, that reflects a diverse world, but feels there’s still a way to go. “It’s always the hardship of growing up if you’re Muslim and Pakistani, when I want to write about the joy of it,” she says. “Ultimately, terrific books give young people joy and make them love the cultures that they are from.”

Blending and marrying different cultural influences is, of course, a journey many children will go through. But, as far as Maryam Hassan is concerned, whether it be Chicago, Tokyo or London every child responds to picture books. “I’ve taught in three different countries now, and in different kinds of schools, and the thing that is similar in all these schools is that children love books. If there is a story time children will come and just sit.

“When I first moved to Japan, I taught in a Japanese elementary school and any time I brought out a book – it was usually Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? or The Very Hungry Caterpillar or Dear Zoo – the children would just sit, and they would all stare at me. The First Graders didn’t really know what I was saying – it was still very early on – but still loved to just listen and look at the pictures.

“Books universally bring children together, so when you have new children starting in a classroom story time is a really great way to have them feel secure in your classroom and be able to share something they can feel connected to right away.”

And that is one of the things that inspires Maryam Hassan to keep on writing for young children. Her second book about food (also illustrated by Anna Wilson) is in production, and there’s another in progress about language acquisition – a fiendishly difficult subject to write about for such a young age group, as she admits, but she is enjoying the challenge. This is a chance to distil some of the observations and experiences garnered teaching across three continents.

While they may not share a common language or culture, Maryam Hassan finds that all young children share one very big thing. “They are very open to new people, and they want to know all about you,” she says. “It is so wonderful to teach and learn about them and watch them grow – it’s such a wonderful thing to watch.”