My Key

Gold Medal Winner of the 2020 Key Colors Illustrators Competition!

"Nothing stops the protagonist from doing what they want to do, and they master every situation in this exhilarating outing." —Publishers Weekly

When two ordinary objects land on a city sidewalk, a little girl’s dull day becomes an odyssey of new places and unusual faces. Led far away on a dragon boat, she makes use of her found objects to get past the locked library doors, where erudite elephants open her eyes to the beauty of books and faraway lands. Faced with fantastic animals and discoveries, has she found the secret to make dull days a thing of the past?

A magical book that celebrates libraries and the power of imagination. For brave explorers ages 5 years and up.

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Amal grew up in a household short on paints but long on dyes made from boiled onion peel and parsley leaves. She owes her choice of becoming an artist to the city’s main library—a massive imaginary playground with texts that, she was certain, would benefit from a little girl’s drawings. Amal’s work has appeared in children’s books, magazines, private collections, and one museum. Her MFA is from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. She lives in the peculiar Village of Port Jefferson with her husband, her daughter’s dog, and a thousand giant mushrooms.