Ozkan Oze

Ozkan Oze (Özkan Öze) is a Turkish writer and editor born in 1974. While still in high school he began working in the editorial office of Zafer Magazine in Istanbul, where he found a lasting love of literature and books. He went on to become an editor with the Zafer Publications Group and has continued to write for young audiences ever since. Among English-speaking readers he is best known for the "I Wonder About Islam" series, whose opening volumes, "I Wonder About Allah" (Books One and Two), are joined by companion titles on the Prophet and the Qurʾan. Written first in Turkish as "Allah'ı Merak Ediyorum" and brought into English by Kube Publishing and The Islamic Foundation, these books take the searching questions children ask about faith and answer them with patience, gentleness, and respect for a young mind. Oze also writes the "Journeys of Thought" series for children, which retells the lives and ideas of Muslim thinkers in narrative form. Titles include "Ibn Sina: In Pursuit of the Flying Man" and "Ibn Tufayl: Alone on the Island of One's Mind," the latter imagining the questions Ibn Tufayl might have pondered before composing his classic "Hayy ibn Yaqzan." Across his work, Oze aims to make matters of belief and thought accessible to children without talking down to them.