Sharjah: Young visitors to Sharjah International Children’s Film Festival 2017 were treated to storytelling sessions and free books brought by Kalimat Group.
The Sharjah-based publisher of Arabic books, who is one of the UAE’s strongest advocates of the Arabic children’s book industry, set up its own book stand and a reading space to inspire children at the film festival’s activity area.
The publisher hosted a series of fun activities with books at its centre. Along with a mini book sale, it also gave away 250 books from their collection of 200 first edition publications to children, in alignment with their mission to encourage a love of books and encourage a reading habit among the UAE’s future generations.
Among the fun activities children enjoyed was a reading session by author Sahar Naja Mahfouz, who read out her own Kalimat publication, ‘Ummi Shantat Safar’ (My Mom, a Travelling Bag).
The protagonist, a young girl, narrates the story of her working mom who travels frequently. She is inquisitive about the few contents of her luggage despite the fact that she owns a big wardrobe.
“I will carry a few articles enough for a couple of days, and the rest I carry in my mind and heart,” says the mother to her perplexed little daughter, and in the simplest way conveys a beautiful message about enriching life not with material belongings but with the treasures of the heart.
Since its inception, Kalimat Group has participated in 50 international book fairs worldwide, and distributed its books in more than 16 countries and 3,000 schools.
