I first met Khushboo Patel through her books. When I read the announcements for Stolen Colors and All That Chandni Knows in Publishers Weekly, I was immediately drawn to both premises. After reading the books, I was even more impressed by the depth she brings to her characters. I’m delighted to welcome Khushboo to Cynsations.
Your new middle-grade book, All That Chandni Knows (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2026), is a coming-of-age verse novel set in India that follows a twelve-year-old girl as she navigates new beginnings, difficult family secrets, and a crush, while Stolen Colors: A Story About Body Safety and Consent, illustrated by Tara Anand (Levine Querido, 2026) is a picture book about body safety and consent that every family needs. Both books deal with powerful, sensitive issues. What was the inspiration for these stories?
My inspiration had a lot to do with my own interests. In literature, I am drawn to works with complexity and deep emotions that explore things that people don’t talk about and questions where there are no easy answers. While both stories have that in common, I came to them a bit differently.
Stolen Colors: I was looking for books about body safety to read to my kids, and while I found some good ones that talked about consent, good touch/bad touch, and good secret/bad secret, and how important it was to say No! and tell a trusted grown-up, it made me immediately think about how tough it is to actually do that in the moment, especially when, so often, it is actually a trusted grown-up that crosses a line.
I had this overwhelming urge to tell a kid in that situation that if you can’t do what’s being asked of you, it’s not your fault. That the freeze reaction and all the complex emotions one may feel are actually normal.
So, for me, Stolen Colors started out with that urge and this question of: How can I tell an honest story about abuse for children? Realistic characters, plot, and layers are very important to me, so I also spent a lot of time thinking about how I could do it in a way where the subject matter doesn’t overwhelm everything else.
All That Chandni Knows: This also started for me with some questions that I was interested in exploring: When the world as we know it is upended, what do we fear, what carries us, and where do we find relief? How do we tread this push-pull between ambition and protection and acceptance and agency, and perfection and freedom?
Some of these are my personal struggles and while it is a story of pain, I also wanted the work to be a celebration of the things I am interested in and love: coming-of-age stories, mother-daughter stories, intimate lyrical storytelling, music, lesser-known settings, languages, food, and culture. I especially loved getting to show kids today school life before the internet.
The references to FLAMES, Bata shoes, Gold Spot, and P‑language in All That Chandni Knows beautifully evoked the 1999 era and reminded me of my own middle school and teenage years. How did your research into that time period and place influence your approach to writing the story?
That is so lovely to know! Thank you for sharing that with me.
World-building for this book was a bit challenging because the story is in first person so weaving in descriptions seamlessly felt tricky, especially it being Chandni’s own world. But it helped to have Chandni as a character who, in part because of the situation she’s in, is hyper aware and notices those little things. So when she mentions small details, it feels natural to who she is, rather than othering or taking you out of the story.
I’ve also always loved how small details can evoke things more deeply sometimes perhaps more than big descriptions can, and I wanted the book to feel immersive in that minute way. Most of my research was centered around mining my own memories and those of friends and family.
I had the good problem of “a lot of rich material,” and the challenge was to weave it in a way that didn’t feel forced, and have a reason for including other than sentimental value. There were so many cultural/ school references I would have loved to add but had to leave out!
I think for many of us new diverse authors, we feel like we have just one chance at setting something in a particular place/culture/time, and so one feels the pressure and temptation of including all that one holds dear. The mindset of – ‘does this actually serve the story?’ – helped a lot.
The illustrations by Tara Anand in Stolen Colors are evocative and deepen the emotional tone of the book. What was it like seeing your story interpreted through her art? Did your text change with the passes?
I was (and still am) in total awe of Tara’s extraordinary work on this book. The first time I saw the full art, I didn’t even look at the text, and experienced it as a wordless book.
Tara brought in so much beauty, power, and subtlety while still being direct, and the result took my breath away. The bold vibrant colors (and how they change through the book), and the addition of the flowers and the tiger (both of which were not in the text) added layers and depth.
I didn’t know the book would have artwork on the case cover too, so that was a lovely surprise, and Tara and the team at LQ put so much thought into every single aspect of this book. The beauty and the production quality make the book truly irresistible, and it is art that you cannot pull yourself away from, which feels pivotal for a book of this kind.
I also love how unafraid and beautiful the cover is, full of meaning. The last line in the book has the words “fresh blank page,” and it was so incredible to see the blank page portrayed on the cover of the book in this way, showcasing what was taken away, and then on the final page, we see the possibility again.
The actual story went through minimal changes once the book was acquired, though we did spend some time making minor edits to the text.
I had it originally written in more of a poem format with more line breaks, which impeded the space for pictures, so we had to adjust that a bit. We also changed the setting from India to the U.S. and the title.
I struggle with titles and the story was initially called ‘I Love to Paint,’ which the team at LQ rightly felt was misleadingly cheerful for such a serious book. They suggested ‘Stolen Colors’ and it was brilliant and perfect – bold yet subtle, and more specific to the act of creation and how creativity can be crushed by trauma.
Your books take readers through complex experiences across different stages of girlhood. What did writing these stories reveal to you about your own growth, both as a writer and as a human being?
You go through so much of your life dealing with and pursuing things, that there is often very little time or even maturity to reflect on things as they happen.
Real life can be chaotic, sometimes more cruel, sometimes more boring, and often just random, whereas in stories, we look for meaning. Writing is an extraordinary exercise where you are forced to sit with and dwell on emotional experiences and mold things in a compelling way and cull some meaning out of it. It’s a very uncomfortable process and I learned that I don’t think I would have undertaken it if I wasn’t writing for young people.
Writing these books revealed for me, how resilient children are, and at the same time, how much young people need to know that they are not alone, and need to see others’ honest struggles through things, however imperfect or unlike their own.
And I also learned, as a writer and as a human being, that growth is not linear and perfection is a myth and if you do X, Y will happen is bonkers, and I think I feel like I need some years away from being in the thick of writing each story to truly reflect!
Your author’s notes for All That Chandni Knows and Stolen Colors are quite distinct. All That Chandni Knows feels deeply personal, while Stolen Colors blends guidance with lived experience. How did you decide what each book needed from its author’s note?
I struggle with writing author’s notes and in general, speaking outside of the story itself, and I am so grateful to have had direction and insight on how to approach this from my brilliant editors for both books.
The note in Stolen Colors is for parents and caregivers, so it made sense to have a list of resources and a note from an expert in the field.
For All That Chandni Knows, it was an opportunity to speak directly to a young reader, so I opened up a bit more because I know what it would have meant to me as a young person to see that kind of honesty and vulnerability.
Having worked as both an attorney and an entrepreneur before writing for young readers, what skills or insights from those professions have carried into your creative practice?
Is it odd that I haven’t thought about this until now? Sometimes I forget that I used to be a lawyer and an entrepreneur, and when I had those careers, I never thought that one day, I would write books for children.
I think studying law taught me the importance of words and also a lot about society and how to think critically.
The decision to become an entrepreneur was a big leap and a huge risk at that time for me, and while that worked out for me, I guess it was practice for being okay with ‘uncertainty’ and ‘failing,’ which is key to pursuing publishing. And I learned a lot about problem-solving, which is also what writing is.
I will say that writing is also very different from those professions, because it requires operating from the heart as well as the mind, and requires courage in a very different way.
What do you want readers to take away from All That Chandni Knows and Stolen Colors?
Both books are my attempts to make the unsayable sayable. I share them with the world in the hopes that they will reach the kid(s) who may really need them, but these (and all) books are for everyone.
I also hope that they can offer readers something more than the obvious. So while Stolen Colors is a book about abuse, it is also about losing passion for something because of something extraneous and finding one’s way back to it, about jealousy and friendship and connection, about how secrets can weigh so heavily on the heart (whether it’s abuse or bullying or anything really), and how hard it is to speak up and the regret and guilt that follows when you can’t, and how sometimes one needs to see courage in action to find courage of our own (courage is contagious), and how courage can also look different for everyone, and the role that love plays and what that looks like in action.
And All That Chandni Knows, for me, at its core, is a mother-daughter love story that explores themes of growing up and navigating complex relationships and situations and those questions I mentioned above, but it’s also a study of society and how that shapes the individual. So I hope it will also offer an opportunity to reflect on biases, norms, and power structures.
What do you love most about the creative life/being an author? Why?
Grappling with the story problem/ the hard questions is what I love about writing. It is never easy for me, but the act of creating something and watching it grow through the many attempts/revisions/passes/failures is such a rewarding process, regardless of the ‘results.’
I also love that I get to work with such amazing editors and artists and be in community with so many wonderful creators. It has opened up my mind and life in the best way and I am so grateful for the deep friendships this work has led me to.
It’s also really nice when I get a message from a reader and get to hear about how the books spoke to them. And I’ve only done one school visit so far, but interacting directly with young readers was such a special experience. Young people give me so much hope.
Can you tell us about any forthcoming books? What are you working on next?
My House is a Muddy River, illustrated by the amazing Lavanya Naidu, will be out from Putnam in Spring 2027. It is a flood story set in India that explores the meaning of home in the wake of hard times and the courage we need to carry on. It was actually my first book deal, so it’s very special to me, and I can’t wait for everyone to see Lavanya’s stunning work on this book.
In terms of what’s next, I am trying to write more picture books and I’m also working my way through this YA idea I have, and I truly don’t know if anything will come of it. It’s all going very slow, but that’s okay. Stories take time.
Cynsational Notes
Khushboo Patel is the author of the picture book Stolen Colors and the middle-grade novel in verse All That Chandni Knows. She was born and raised in Vadodara, India, and currently lives in Florida with her husband and two children.
Suma Subramaniam is a recruiter by day and children’s book author by night. She writes picture books, middle grade, chapter books, and poetry. Her works include Crystal Kite Award winner: Namaste Is A Greeting, New York Public Library Vibrant Voices Selection: She Sang For India, ILA Notable: My Name Is Long As A River, and the V. Malar series. When she’s not recruiting or writing, Suma volunteers with SCBWI and We Need Diverse Books or blogs about children’s literature. Learn more at https://sumasubramaniam.com.