Finding common ground: How ‘Bela and Lily’ celebrates friendship across cultures

With her new picture book Bela and Lily (Penguin Young Readers Group, 2025), Bangladeshi-American author and illustrator Natasha Khan Kazi is providing a window into the Bangladeshi diaspora experience. Released in August, the heartwarming children's book follows Bela, a young Bengali girl, and her new American friend Lily, as they learn to communicate despite their language barrier. With the friendship between Bela and Lily, Kazi hopes to display the many forms of human connection that transcend language. "I was trying to show the nuances of friendship, that there are so many ways to express yourself, like through play or acts of kindness," the author said. 

Bela And Lily is a relatable friendship story that evocatively illustrates how the strong human desire for connection can transcend language and cultural differences. By acknowledging how nerve-wracking it can be to make new friends, it subtly encourages children to communicate in ways that feel most natural to them. For bilingual readers, especially for children of Bangladeshi immigrants, it is striking to see how organically English and Bangla words interact on the page. The  inclusiveness of the book in showcasing a South Asian language front and centre also adds to its appeal. 

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The picture book is based on the author and illustrator's own background as a Bangladeshi immigrant in the United States. Kazi was born in Dhaka Medical College, and at the age of five, she moved with her family from Chittagong to Texas. Like Bela, she had to make her first friends without knowing English. As part of her creative process, Kazi incorporated her own childhood experiences of friendship and language into Bela's story, such as her memory of trying to communicate with another child at a community picnic, and being unable to say anything except "no." She was inspired to write Bela and Lily after visiting schools and meeting many children whose English-as-second-language experiences mirrored her own. 

Coming from a family that left Bangladesh in the 1980s, before the advent of the internet and social media, Kazi learned more about Bangladeshi classics than pop culture while growing up. Her parents had little knowledge of how Bangladesh was growing and changing, but taught her old folk songs, introduced her to the harmonium, tabla, and sitar, and decorated the walls of the family home with the crafts of village artisans. In writing her picture books, Kazi was most inspired by Bangladeshi folk art, with its vibrant colours, beautiful patterns, and simple shapes. "When I create compositions, I often start by thinking about it in its simplest forms. Analysing the way the lines move and shape language. Then I will add emphasis, details and create drama through the use of color and patterns," Kazi explained. The illustrations for Bela and Lily were created using pencil, digital pencil and watercolor on cold-press paper, depicting their world in rich colours using a naturalistic artistic style with visible textures.

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While Bela and Lily is written in English, Kazi peppers the book with Bangla words, juxtaposing many English words with their Bangla equivalent. She focuses on words that appeal to children, hoping to foster playfulness with language.

The writer's own children influenced her transition from a corporate job to her career as an author and illustrator. When her children were very young, she would visit their school and read books about Ramadan, hoping for them to experience the joy of their culture. After her four-year-old son requested a better book that showcases the fun aspects of the holiday, she was inspired to write and illustrate her first book, Moon's Ramadan (Farshore, 2023), which was named a School Library Journal Best Picture Book. She is also the author and illustrator of Lulu in the Spotlight (HarperCollins Publishers, 2025), a picture book about the South Asian wedding experience. 

Kazi and her family currently reside in Los Angeles, California, where there is a large Bengali community, helping them stay connected to Bangladeshi culture through community celebrations. Recognising that the experience of being Bangladeshi in the diaspora differs from living in Bangladesh, she hopes Bela and Lily offers a glimpse into life in the diaspora and contributes to the history of Bangladeshis in America. 

Sophia Ahmed is a Bangladesh-American student journalist living in New York.