What I read
Fantasy and sci-fi, mostly. My favorite is The School for Good and Evil.
A young author with a head full of imagination and a heart full of stories. I published my first book at nine, and I haven't stopped writing since.
I'm Kaira, and I'm eleven. I write short stories for kids — mostly about friendship, courage, and the moments where somebody has to be braver than they feel.
When I was nine I published my first book, Joyful Journeys: A Collection of Kids' Tales. I wrote it because I wanted other kids to discover how good reading and writing can feel, so every story has blanks left in it for the reader to fill in.
My second book, Stitched Stories: A Collection of Inspiring Tales, came from combining my two favourite things. I make crochet characters — a bunny, a dragon, a blue fish — and I kept wondering who they were and where they'd been. So I wrote it down. Four stories, starring my handmade friends.
I'm donating the profits from both books. I didn't write them to make money — I wrote them because I like writing. What I really want is for kids who don't have as much as I do to get to read too, and to go to the places my characters go. Everybody should be allowed to visit story-land. I'd also love to work with public libraries near me, reading my stories to kids and teaching them to crochet their own characters.
When I'm not writing I'm usually drawing, reading, crocheting, or thinking up new characters. I'm working on a third book now.
Every dollar of profit from Stitched Stories and Joyful Journeys goes to Seattle Angels, who support kids and families in foster care around Seattle.
A second collection — four tales of friendship and courage, each one starring a character I crocheted by hand before writing about it.
My first book: four kids' tales with unfinished endings, so readers get to write the rest themselves.
Character sketches, action scenes, narrative settings — the practice work behind the books.
Reaching out to local public libraries to run free author talks and learn-to-crochet workshops for kids. Get in touch if you run one.
Still early. Still secret — except for one part: readers get to vote on who it's about.
“My head is always full of stories, characters, and crochet ideas. Sometimes they even keep me awake at night! I hope my stories inspire you to imagine, create, and believe that every little idea can become something wonderful.”— Kaira Bhatia
Fantasy and sci-fi, mostly. My favorite is The School for Good and Evil.
Ideas first, in a notebook. Then a messy draft. Then a lot of fixing.
Drawing anime, crochet, piano, and inventing characters I don't have stories for yet.