The Ocean Would Paint Me Blue

Biographical Note:
Zoulfa Katouh is the award-winning and bestselling author of the novel As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow and The Ocean Would Paint Me Blue. Her books have been translated into over twenty-five languages and As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow was a Governor General's Award finalist and a Yoto Carnegie Medal nominee. Zoulfa holds a degree in pharmacy and a master's in Drug Sciences. She resides in Switzerland where she lives as a Studio Ghibli protagonist who is surrounded by a never-ending stack of books that keeps growing.


Review Quotes:
*" A powerful, ­unflinching ­exploration of ­Islamophobia, identity, and grief. "-- School Library Journal, starred review

Review Quotes:
"It's a powerful exploration of injustice, identity, and the radical act of making oneself feel seen."-- Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Review Quotes:
" The portrayals of Syrian American identity, Muslim faith, and diaspora experiences are authentic and lyrical... Devastating and luminous."-- Kirkus, Starred Review

Publisher Marketing:

From the celebrated author of As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow comes a poignant novel about a Syrian American girl who uses a magical sketchbook to turn her grief into art, painting miraculous murals of her mother's life in Syria.

Broken by tragedy, Jihad's family doesn't believe her color loss. Her father sends her to the elite Braxton Academy to finish her senior year. There, Jihad's name and hijab put a target on her back. Her haven comes in the form of an old sketchbook carved from a tree in her hometown in Syria--a country she only knew through her mother's stories. Jihad hasn't picked up a brush in over a year, but finds herself channeling the colors of her hurt, pain, and grief as she paints the story of her mother's journey in Syria.

When graffiti of that same mural starts magically popping up all over New York, her art goes viral and the world takes notice, the threat of legal consequences is imminent. To reclaim her voice, Jihad will have to paint a new future for herself and Braxton, guided by the resilience of her mother's story.

Review Citations:

• Kirkus Reviews 04/01/2026 (EAN 9780316351942, Hardcover) - *Starred Review
• School Library Journal 03/01/2026 pg. 73 (EAN 9780316351942, Hardcover) - *Starred Review
• Publishers Weekly 03/23/2026 (EAN 9780316351942, Hardcover) - *Starred Review
• Booklist 04/01/2026 (EAN 9780316351942, Hardcover) - *Starred Review
• Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 06/01/2026 (EAN 9780316351942, Hardcover)
• Horn Book Magazine 07/01/2026 pg. 93 (EAN 9780316351942, Hardcover)