Young Adult and Marvel comic writer Samira Ahmed has characters who go on wild journeys — or punch through ceilings
CHICAGO — Samira Ahmed once owned a golden ball.
It was actually rubber with gold-colored flecks, but for the sake of storytelling, picture a gold ball, magic, one of a kind. Certainly, she liked to believe this. Her parents planted a grove of lilac trees in their backyard in Batavia and Samira would roll her golden orb between the trunks, opening a portal into strange worlds. Think Narnia, “A Wrinkle in Time,” the rune-carved doorways of J.R.R. Tolkien. She read them all. She was that most typical of pop-smitten ‘70s children. She was devoted to “Star Wars.” Also, Linda Carter on “Wonder Woman.” They shared a lot in common. Wonder Woman had dark hair — so did Samira! Wonder Woman was an immigrant — Samira was born in Bombay!
Her family was perhaps the first Indian family to live to Batavia. She knows this because, when the Ahmeds arrived in 1972, a local newspaper found it remarkable enough to do a story on them. She
