Ep16 Tim’s Travails: This month we interview journalist and children’s book author Karen Leggett Abouraya
August 2026 — This month on IP attorney and author Timothy Trainer’s podcast/video show we talk about the art of writing books for kids and adults with journalist and children’s book author Karen Leggett Abouraya
Today’s Topic: What it means to write well!
Tim asks:
- How did you go from being a broadcast journalist to writing children’s books?
- Your book talks about the similarities between all people — whether they live in New York or Egypt. What inspired you to tackle this topic?
- What do you want kids around the world to know based on this story?
- The book is for your grandson. How does he feel about being featured?
- What are you working on now?
About our guest: Karen Leggett Abouraya was surrounded by writing and books in her youth. Her father was a journalist and her mother a school librarian. Karen is an award-winning broadcast journalist, as she worked in the field for more than two decades. She began reviewing and discussing children’s books on ABC WMAL Radio in Washington, D.C. She has also reviewed children’s books and interviewed authors for the Washington Post, New York Times, the Baltimore Sun, Children’s Literature, Washington Parent and others. She is a widely published freelance author and actively involved in disability advocacy in her home state of Maryland. Karen graduated from Brown University (international relations). Karen has received a long list of awards for her books (e.g., Children’s Africana Book Awards for Best Books for Young Children, California Reading Association Eureka Silver Honor Award, Middle East Studies Association Best Picture Book) and journalism (e.g., Chesapeake Associated Press Broadcasters Association, Education Writers Association).
About Karen’s latest book, Zamzam: Zamzam is a young boy who enjoys life with his Egyptian grandparents in Alexandria, Egypt, and his American grandparents in New York City. He shares big and little differences in his daily experiences in each country – including phrases in Arabic and English — but ultimately realizes that the most important experiences are exactly the same across cultures.
What critics are saying:
“Educators have an opportunity to discuss their students’ own experiences with family members from around the country or the world and have them compare similarities and differences of their cultures.” — A Book and a Hug
“Page after page weaves a message of difference into a fabric of harmony, across continents and customs, contexts and cultures, showing a seamless, integrated life that is bridged by love in both directions…The sweetness of the text is well-matched by the whimsy of the art in a way that every child can enjoy. A true pleasure to see and share!” — Andrea E. Stumpf, author Memoirs of an Arabian Princess
“Conveying that even though sights and sounds and language might be different, the love is the same. The book does a good job of not othering one set or making one seem better than the other. It also weaves in Arabic words and culture.” — Edelweiss
Photos of Tim by AnnaGibbs.com
About Tim’s Travails: In this podcast/video sereis, IP attorney and author Tim Trainer introduce us to experts around the country who have insight into the law, international trade, and more, to help us better understand our world in 2025 and beyond.
Tim, himself, fits the bill for he worked for three decades for the US government and private law firms focusing on international trade, and has developed a deep understanding of global economics and politics.
Writing books is his passion. The author of seven books as of 2025, he has penned several non-fiction tomes, including his first book, Customs Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights; the 15th edition was published in 2020. Thomson Reuters’ Aspatore Books published Tim’s next title in 2015, Potato Chips to Computer Chips: The War on Fake Stuff. Fiction was a genre he always wanted to try. In 2017, Pendulum Over the Pacific was released by Joshua Tree Publishing. “This political intrigue story is set in Tokyo and Washington, D.C., and centers on trade tensions between the U.S. and Japan in the late 1980s,” Tim explains. In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection. In December 2024, he followed it with The China Factor.
Stay tuned for more episodes on InkandescentRadio.com and Inkandescent.tv, and of course, log in regularly for new blog entries and other information on Tim’s website, www.TimothyTrainer.com.
