The prize has six categories: Young Adult Book of the Year, Best Text, Best Illustrations, Best Production, and Digital Book App of the Year. There is also a “Children’s Book of the Year” award, a top prize worth 300,000 AED, that additionally goes to a book in any of the categories.
“We meet a man who lives his whole life with questions, then simply dives into them. He reminds us of the people we love most. He is the sea and the sky. He is Palestine and the United States and anywhere else you ever loved that did not quite live up to Best Dreams of Justice and Fairness.”
“The child writers are, of course, the most important participants in the project, but in the background were Baree Khalil, a children’s-book author from Syria, and the writing coaches Tomas Jakobsson and Karin Olsson, all three residents in Gävle.”
Today is the last day of World Kid Lit Month (#WorldKidLit) as well as International Translation Day (#ITD2017). Here, we bring together a few of the issues facing Arabic children’s literature and make suggestions for a start at bringing the best of Arabic children’s literature into English.
“Petra Dünges is one of a handful of European specialists in Arabic children’s literature and the translator of the first children’s book from Arabic to appear in the German language.”
“Although translations of grown-ups’ Arabic literature have seen a sharp uptick in the last two decades, translations of Arabic children’s literature have not.”
“The jury will select the winner based on graphic quality, audio quality, artistic and technical excellence and informational value, with particular reference to overall publishing excellence and innovation.”
As the name of the competition indicates, it celebrates: “the Earth, eco-living, environmental awareness, agriculture and love of greenery.”
If Amal Farah could go back in time, “I would read much more in physics and philosophy. I have read a great deal of the books that helped me become the writer I am today, but I would advise everyone to indulge in these two areas to write for children, those amazing and wise creatures.”
“But these developments in Palestinian literature for young people weren’t something that happened all of a sudden.”
“At least 6 parents and teachers came and asked me when the English translation of Ghadan/Tomorrow is coming out. There’s so much interest in it and some people bought it even though they can’t read Arabic, so that they can look at the pictures with their kids and retell the story from memory!”
“Teens need to read about what they care about most, which is love and relationships, and we, as writers, are not permitted to go near that area, or at least we cannot be as honest and realistic as we should or would like to be.”
