Creator Corner: Author Shazia Afzal

Welcome to Creator Corner, a blog series where we interview the creators of our recent books. For this post, we interviewed The Eidi Bag author Shazia Afzal, whose book published January 7, 2025!

Owlkids Books: How and why did you begin writing children’s books?

Shazia Afzal: I wrote my first book in the year 2000. It was just a silly repetitive book with shapes. When I came to Canada, I wrote another book and sent it to my dear mentor and favorite author Rukhsana Khan. She told me to get some writing courses, and I did. Thus began my true journey of writing children’s books.

I started writing because I wanted to write faith based books for children that were age appropriate and interesting.

OKB: What inspired you to write this book?

SA: In Pakistan, many families give money as Eid gifts (called Eidi) to children on Eid day. It is rude to ask for Eidi, and kids are taught to wait, but with their own parents, kids sometimes bargain for more and more! We continued this tradition when we came to Canada, and I wanted to share it with children who read the book.

OKB: What was the most enjoyable part of bringing this story to life? What was the most challenging part of the process?

SA: The best part was showing what a typical Eid day looks like for Muslims all over the world. A challenging part was reviewing and editing again and again. Sometimes, I didn’t know what else to do but then my editor would give me suggestions and ideas and I was able to improve and make revisions.

OKB: What do you hope readers will take away from this book?

SA: I hope readers get a glimpse of how Eid is celebrated and how there is always something positive in everything.

OKB: What’s an interesting fact people may not know about Eid?

SA: A very interesting fact about Eid is that it is very simple. All one needs to do is wash up, dress nice, pray in the masjid, give charity, meet family and friends, and enjoy food all day after a whole month of fasting.