In this episode of Black in the Stacks, Marquita chats with author Khadijah VanBrakle about her interests, her views on why it’s important that children and teens who are both Black American and Muslim, like her three daughters, see themselves on the printed page, and how Gilmore Girls inspired her latest novel, My Perfect Family,

My Perfect Family follows 16 year old Leena, who has always wanted a big family, as she discovers she has a Muslim grandfather and aunt she never knew about, and learns that family comes with tangled histories she may not be able to heal.