The Day of Ahmed's Secret

Summary of Book

As young Ahmed delivers butane gas to customers all over the city of Cairo, he thinks, I have a secret. All day long, as he maneuvers his donkey cart through streets crowded with cars and camels, down alleys filled with merchants' stalls, and past buildings a thousand years old, Ahmed keeps his secret safe inside. It is so special, so wonderful, that he can reveal it only to his family, only when he returns home, only at the end of the day.

Author Biography

Florence Parry Heide (1919-2011) was the author of more than 100 children's books, including picture books, juvenile novels, two series of young adult mysteries, plays, songbooks and poetry. She may be best remembered for her now-classic The Shrinking of Treehorn and its two sequels, illustrated by the great Edward Gorey.

Florence grew up in Punxsutawney, PA, married during the second world war, and spent her adult life in Kenosha, WI, with her husband and five children, all of whom grew up listening to the joyful sounds of an old typewriter.

Judith Heide Gilliland had a good role model when she decided to become a children's book writer: her mother, Florence Parry Heide, has written more than one hundred books for children. Collaborating with Heide, Gilliland's first book put her master's degree in Near-Eastern languages and her experiences living in the Middle East to good use. The book, titled The Day of Ahmed's Secret, was one of two books to be ranked as a notable title about Arabs by the American Library Association. Other books by Gilliland include the story-hour favorite Not in the House, Newton! as well as House of Wisdom, the novel Strange Birds, and the picture-book biography Steamboat: The Story of Captain Blanche Leathers.

Illustrator Biography
Ted Lewin grew up in an old frame house in Buffalo, New York, with two brothers, one sister, two parents, a lion, an iguana, a chimpanzee, and an assortment of more conventional pets. The lion was given to his older brother, Don, while he was traveling as a professional wrestler, and he shipped it home. The family kept Sheba in the basement fruit cellar until Don returned and their mother convinced him to give it to the Buffalo zoo.

Ted always knew he wanted to be an illustrator. As a child he copied the work of illustrators and painters he admired, including N. C. Wyeth, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Velázquez, and Goya. When it came time to go to art school (Pratt), he needed to earn money to finance his education. So, following in his brother’s footsteps, he took a summer job as a wrestler -- the beginning of a 15-year part-time career that eventually inspired his autobiographical book I Was a Teenage Professional Wrestler. Ted’s career as an artist began with illustrations for adventure magazines, and it’s only over the last several years that he has devoted his time to writing and illustrating children’s books. "I’m having more fun doing this than anything I’ve ever done before," he says. He is an avid traveler, and many of his books are inspired by trips to such places as the Amazon River, the Sahara Desert, Botswana, Egypt, Lapland, and India. His Market!, published in 1996, showcases markets around the world, from Uganda to Ireland to Ecuador.

Touch and Go is a collection of stories about the adventures Ted had while researching his books. Gorilla Walk is his first collaboration with his wife, Betsy, and is about their trek to see the mountain gorillas in Uganda. They’ve just completed their second collaboration, Elephant Quest, set in the Okavango Delta of Botswana. Ted’s current project is about a Civil War drummer boy.

Ted and Betsy live in Brooklyn, New York, where they share their home with two cats, Slick and Chopper.