Emily Saw a Door

I walked into a Paris bookshop thinking of Emily in Paris—style, streets, a little romance with the city—but instead found Emily Saw a Door by Mel Rosenberg, illustrated by Orit Magia, and everything slowed down. As I read, I was reminded of Harold and the Purple Crayon—that quiet, powerful idea that when the world doesn’t open up for you, you begin to draw your own way through it. Emily’s journey feels simple on the surface, a girl, a door, a search for belonging, but underneath it asks something harder: what happens when every door stays closed, and what does it take to imagine one open?

There is loneliness here, and that familiar human resistance to welcoming what feels different, yet there is also courage. What stayed with me, and with my class, was this: if you cannot find a place that fits you, create one—build the door and decide what waits behind it. It is a story that meets you wherever you are, child or adult, inviting conversation, empathy, and reflection. Some books you find, and some books find you when you need them. This one did.