Our Favorite Day of the Year: A Talk with Iranian Illustrator Rahele Jomepour Bell

I just know I can’t be the only person to have noticed that there’s been a significant uptick in the number of Iranian authors and illustrators of children’s books published in America in the past five years. To what do we owe this international influx of talent? After all, the sheer variation in these artists is astounding.

Such were my thoughts when I read the picture book Our Favorite Day of the Year by A.E. Ali, illustrated by Iranian artist Rahele Jomepour Bell. Its description reads...