My Key

Gold Medal Winner of the 2020 Key Colors Illustrators Competition! "Nothing stops the protagonist from doing what they want to do, and they master every situation in this exhilarating outing." - Publishers WeeklyWhen two ordinary objects land on a city sidewalk, a little girl’s dull day becomes an odyssey of new places and unusual faces. Led far away on a dragon boat, she makes use of her found objects to get past the locked library doors, where erudite elephants open her eyes to the beauty of books and faraway lands. Faced with fantastic animals and discoveries, has she found the secret to make dull days a thing of the past?A magical book that celebrates libraries and the power of imagination. For brave explorers ages 5 years and up.

Gold Medal Winner of the 2020 Key Colors Illustrators Competition! Winner of the 2022 Northern Lights Book Awards: Honoring Children’s Literature of Exceptional Merit "The apparently Black narrator of this picture book by author-illustrator Amal sits outside a brick row house, wishing for a trip to the movies, Timbuktu, “a little Kasbah in a big city”—or at very least the library. Instead, a neighborhood raven offers a magical glowing ball: “It beams! It’s fantastic!” Now the child can travel alone. In this new fantasy world, sea dragons loom, but the protagonist is unintimidated: “No! You can’t have my ball. It won’t do anything for you!” When a sign at the library says it’s closed due to a “very important young elephant book conference,” the child makes a key, finds a book about the kasbah—and instantly, an elephant reaches out of the book: “I knew I’d get to Morocco!” Magical developments unfurl one after another as sepia tones dominate elegant, classically drafted panel artwork that subtly transitions to color. Nothing stops the protagonist from doing what they want to do, and they master every situation in this exhilarating outing. Ages 5–11." - Publishers Weekly "I LOVED this picture book! Thank you for letting me read it. The graphics were stunning, so much that honestly this would even be great as a wordless book. I think this book would be better for older kids/students who enjoy picture books, as younger kids may get overwhelmed by the realism of the art style, or maybe not. I will definitely be ordering it for our middle grade picture book collection." - Barrington Middle School "My Key is a book that highlights the beauty of traveling anywhere via books, something I think most of us can appreciate. I think the prose is a little difficult to understand, especially for younger children, and 5 (the age stated on the back of the book) may be a bit too young to understand this incredibly metaphoric story. The illustrations, though, are supremely gorgeous, and I think many children will appreciate seeing a girl who looks like them in the pages of a book. My favorite pages were the ones with the elephant band." - Gilbert Public Schools

Amal is a native of Baltimore, Maryland and grew up in a household short on paints, but long on dyes made from boiled onion peel and parsley leaves. She owes her choice of becoming an artist to the city’s main library—a massive imaginary playground with texts, she was certain, would benefit from a little girl’s drawings. Amal’s work has appeared in children’s books, magazines, private collections and one museum.Her MFA is from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. She lives in the peculiar Village of Port Jefferson with her husband, daughter’s dog, and a thousand giant mushrooms.