Author · Educator · Storyteller

ShariffaSabrie

Picture books rooted in Somali soil, reaching every child's world

Stories born from two worlds. The Juba River and Puget Sound, the dhiil, the ashuun, and the saab. The basketball court, the fog that smells like uunsi. For every child who holds two homes in one heart.

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The Books

Four books.
One author.
One platform.

Querying

Saabkii Suuban

Picture Book · Querying · Ashuun & Saab

Along the Juba River, little Suuban carries more than water in her tiny clay pot. She will try to find a way to help the women of the village by creating something useful and durable to ease the weight of their heavy ashuuns. A STEM-rooted picture book celebrating observation, invention, and the brilliance of Somali women.

Querying

Rooble's Luul

Picture Book · Querying · Luul & The Ocean

In a coastal village where the rolling hills meet the sea, a fisherman's son named Rooble longs for a baby goat. His father reminds him they are people of the sea, though his uncle walks a different path. When his uncle surprises him with the wobbliest little goat in the village, Rooble dives deep to find her a name worthy of the ocean.

Submitted

The Flying Hijab

Picture Book · Submitted · Basketball & Belonging

Firdous wants to play basketball, just like her mother did, half a world away. A Zanzibari chest, salvaged videotapes, a found photograph of a woman holding an orange ball. Some things are passed down without words.

Under Development

Uun

Picture Book · In Development · Uun & The Fog

A girl named Uun moves to Seattle and one autumn morning stands in the fog on the hill. A Seattle fog that evokes familiar visions and smells. A story about memory, belonging, and the moment a new place finally feels like home.

About Shariffa

Educator. Author. Root-keeper.

Shariffa Sabrie is a Somali-American author based in Seattle, Washington, with over thirty years of experience in early childhood education, as a center director and Early Childhood Education trainer.

Her picture books are an extension of her continued early childhood exploration, her Somali cultural heritage, diaspora experience, and a deep love for children navigating two worlds.

Her books span from the Juba River to Puget Sound, from coastal villages to the Seattle basketball court. Four stories, one vision: that every child, wherever they are, deserves to see their world reflected back to them in a story.

An early learning educator. A visual thinker. A debut author in the making.

My Roots

Where the storiescome from

Every book begins with an image. A girl carrying a clay vessel. A goat wandering toward the sea. A hijab catching the wind above a basketball court in Seattle rain.

Each story lives at the intersection of old memory and new. What was carried from Somalia, and what is being built now. The rivers, the ocean, the beautiful landscape of new memories.

These stories are for diaspora children navigating two worlds, and for every child who has ever wondered if both worlds could fit inside one heart.

I watched them walk in from the outskirts of Mogadishu. Women carrying milk in carved wooden dhiil and water in clay ashuun. The saab a cradle of balance between body and burden. That image never left me. It became Suuban.

SHARIFFA SABRIE

The ashuun and the saab, water carried with balance, earth held with grace.Saabkii Suuban
A name whispered at the bottom of the ocean, waiting for Rooble.Rooble's Luul
An orange ball and a found photograph, defiance passed forward across oceans.The Flying Hijab
Uunsi rising, the Seattle fog that carries memory home.Uun