Umisaldo A. Khair lives in Australia with her doting husband and her vibrant and energetic son. She began reading to her son whilst he was still growing in her belly, not only so he could recognise her voice from early on, but in the hope that she would instil in him a love for reading and listening to stories.

In her never-ending quest to find interesting, funny and Islamically relevant books that were age-appropriate as her son grew, Umisaldo began to dabble in writing a little fiction herself based on themes that her child was experiencing at the time—such as night terrors. Even though the original story was still an imperfect draft, she read the story to her son, who not only resonated with the events but absolutely adored it!

Wanting to transform this story into a proper book as a gift for her child, she consulted her best friend, Raihanaty A. Jalil, about the process of publishing a book.

Raihanaty A. Jalil has had a passion for writing since primary school, writing poetry and fictional stories throughout her life. She independently published her first poetry collection in 2011, which kickstarted her parallel journey into entrepreneurship.

Raihanaty has helped two friends publish their own books, drawing on her experiences of both successes and failures. She’s also been incredibly blessed to have read her work during Perth Festival Writers Week, at The Wheeler Centre for the Digital Writers’ Festival and has sat on the board for Centre for Stories.

So when Umisaldo asked Raihanaty about the different pathways to turn her stories into physical books for her son, it sparked the idea to go into partnership to produce the books themselves.

And thus KMB Press was born.

KMB Press aims to add value to the lives of growing young Muslims by providing them with alternative and educational entertainment in the form of books. Not only do we want to encourage our Ummah to read from a young age, we also want them to have fictional characters they can resonate with who hold the same Islamic beliefs and value systems.