Noor and her paper boat

Not too little to make a difference.

Noor and Her Paper Boat began with a real five-year-old girl, a sheet of paper, and a simple wish: to send food to children in Gaza.

When author Dr. Nousheen Zakaria’s young daughter learned that children her own age were going hungry, she wanted to help. With the encouragement of her school principal, she folded a paper boat, placed grains inside it, and imagined sending it across the sea to Gaza. Soon, other children joined her, filling the school garden with little boats of their own.

Dr. Zakaria transformed this real-life moment into a tender story about the extraordinary compassion of ordinary children. She deliberately chose not to name Gaza in the written narrative, allowing its message to cross political, cultural, and geographical boundaries and speak for every child experiencing hunger and suffering. Yet Palestine remains quietly woven into the illustrations, where a paper boat bearing the Palestinian flag reveals the destination at the heart of the story.

The name Noor, meaning light, was chosen as a dedication to the children of Gaza and as an act of remembrance. In imagining Noor’s world, the author asks us to remember that every child has more than a name: a home, a family, a school, people who love them, and hopes and dreams for a future.

Inspired by real-life events and dedicated to the children of Gaza, Noor and Her Paper Boat is a story of childhood, empathy, remembrance, and hope — reminding us to look beyond numbers and never forget the individual children behind them.

Because no child is too little to make a difference.