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Browntown Diaries, written by Brampton teen author Imaan Gill, has been published and is now accepting pre-orders on Kickstarter.

Imaan Gill is a high school student from Brampton. He spends his free time writing code and playing the guitar. He is also a founding member of his school's Physics Club. Besides writing, Gill aims to become a Computer Scientist.

According to Gill, Browntown Diaries introduces readers to the crazy, weird and just plain funny life of Karan, a teenager trying to survive summer with his brown family in a brown town. He spends his summer on awkward family trips, learning Indian “negotiating” skills, exploring his sister’s Martian roots and keeping track of his grandpa's gang activities.

The character of Karan is loosely based on an exaggerated version of Gill while the overall story is based on his experiences from living in a South Asian family. He was inspired to write the book as he felt that minorities are underrepresented in literature, making it hard for young people to find characters they relate to.

"As a kid, I’ve always loved reading, but it was difficult for me to ever find a book that represented me and my culture. Since I had an interest in writing I decided to take up the challenge of creating a book that would represent myself and those like me," says the teen.

Browntown Diaries is a 200-page novel enhanced with over a hundred illustrations.

"The book is full of humour, but it also deals with themes of family and finding your own culture. Regardless of ethnicity, everyone will find this story very relatable to them. Being uprooted and moving to a new place is a very unique experience, especially if you have multiple generations living together, all at their levels of comfort, as was the case with my parents and grandparents moving to Canada from India," says the author.

To learn more about the book and/or the author, click here.