Zamzam divides his time between his grandparents’ homes in New York City in the United States and Alexandria, Egypt. While the two places are different in terms of sights, sounds, and flavors, they share much in common. But the most important thing they share is family love.

Readers are introduced to Zamzam, a young boy who enjoys life with family spread out over thousands of miles. In New York City in the United States, he enjoys playing his guitar while his grandparents clap along, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with his grandmother, and going to Central Park with his grandparents to ride the carousel.

In Alexandria, Egypt, Zamzam sleeps in the same room his gedu (grandpa) slept in as a child, goes to the market with his gedetti (grandma) to buy fresh food, and plays his tabla (drum) for his grandparents.

Zamzam experiences big and little differences with his grandparents in each country but realizes that the most important of these experiences seem the same. His interactions with Grandma and Grandpa in New York City and Gedu and Gedetti in Alexandria are all based on his strong love for his grandparents and the different cultures to which they expose Zamzam.

Karen Leggett Abouraya, an award-winning broadcast journalist in Washington, D.C., has reviewed children’s books for The New York Times and Washington Parent and is an active member of the Children’s Book Guild of Washington, D.C. Her first picture book, Hands Around the Library: Protecting Egypt’s Treasured Books, won multiple awards, including the Arab American Book Award and Children’s Africana Book Award. Karen, her Egyptian husband, and their two children have traveled frequently to Egypt, so it is not surprising that Egypt is the focus of her children’s books, including Zamzam.

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