When I wrote The Rolling Pumpkin, I didn’t just want to tell a story.

I wanted to offer a window into the eyes of a child who has seen too much, too young, and into a world that many still misunderstand.

The book follows Omid, a bright and imaginative young boy whose life is uprooted when his family is forced to flee Iran.

Through his eyes, we witness the confusion, fear, and strange moments of beauty that arise on the road to refuge.

His constant companion is a beloved folktale his grandmother once told him about a clever old woman who escapes danger by hiding in a rolling pumpkin.

This simple, magical story becomes Omid’s shield, his language of survival, and ultimately, a symbol of the resilience that lives in all of us.

I wrote this book because so many refugee stories are told from the outside looking in.

If you’ve ever wondered what it truly feels like to be displaced, to have your world taken from you and still keep going, then this book is for you.

The Rolling Pumpkin will take you on a journey across borders and into the quiet heart of survival.

It will show you how stories can become lifelines, how children hold on to joy even in the darkest of moments.

And how hope, fragile, stubborn, and bright, keeps rolling forward.

Consider buying this book not just to read a story, but to feel it.

To walk beside someone like Omid.

To understand, to remember, and maybe even to see the world differently.

I’ve lived this journey, from mountain village to war zone to exile, and I’ve worked with refugee children for years.

I’ve seen how the world fails to understand what they carry.

Omid’s voice is fictional, but the emotions, the questions, the quiet traumas, those are real.

The Rolling Pumpkin is for anyone who wants to better understand the refugee experience, not through headlines, but through the eyes of a child who just wants to go home.

Who doesn’t understand why his world is falling apart, and who somehow, through it all, manages to hold on to hope.

This story is painful, yes, but it’s also filled with humour, wonder, and love.

It’s about friendship, imagination, and the small moments of connection that make survival possible.

Teachers have used it in classrooms.

Parents have read it with their children.

Refugees have told me they saw themselves in Omid.

And readers from all walks of life have told me it changed how they see the world.