Winning is Bijan's favorite thing, and he always wins. But could it be that some things, like friendship, aren't a contest?

In a special storytime during the Heartland Book Festival, Kansas City-based author Adib Khorram reads his new picture book, the 2025 Great Reads from Great Places children’s selection from Missouri, about what you risk losing when all you care about is victory.

An award-winning and bestselling author of fiction for all ages, Khorram’s debut novel for young adults, Darius the Great Is Not Okay, won the William C. Morris Award, the APALA Award, and a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor, and was named one of Time Magazine's 100 Best Young Adult Novels of All Time.

His debut novel for adults, I’ll Have What He’s Having, was a USA Today bestseller. Publishers Weekly describes his latest book for adults, It Had to Be Him, as a “winning romance about lovers helping each other become their best selves."