Meet the author

Hatem Aly.

Illustrator · Canada

Hatem Aly: the warm, glowing illustrator behind the bestselling Proudest Blue hijab trilogy and Adam Gidwitz's Newbery Honor fiction — tender, luminous work made for sharing.

Hatem Aly is an illustrator and cartoonist born and raised in Cairo, Egypt, who moved to Canada in 2007 and now works from New Brunswick. His warm, glowing ink-and-watercolour style has become one of the most recognisable in contemporary children's publishing, ranging across picture books and illustrated fiction. He illustrated Adam Gidwitz's Newbery Honor novel The Inquisitor's Tale and the long-running Unicorn Rescue Society series, and — most relevant here — the New York Times bestselling hijab trilogy written by Ibtihaj Muhammad with S.K. Ali: The Proudest Blue, The Kindest Red and The Boldest White. Across those books his art carries real tenderness, giving faith, family and community stories a luminous, unshowy grace. A dependable name for warm, inclusive picture books that reward slow, shared reading.