Culture & Education | Sunday 15 October, 2017 1:38 am |

One of the UAE’s strongest advocates of the Arabic children’s book industry, Kalimat Group, the Sharjah-based publisher of Arabic books, did not miss the opportunity to bring books and young readers together once again at the Sharjah International Children’s Film Festival 2017.

 

With a beautiful book stand and a reading space for children at the film festival’s activity area, the publisher hosted a series of fun activities with books at its centre. Among these 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.

 

Along having a mini book sale, Kalimat also gave away 250 books from their collection of 200 first edition publications to young visitors at SICFF 2017, in alignment with their mission to encourage a love of books and encourage a reading habit among the UAE’s future generations.

 

Since its inception, Kalimat Group participated in 50 international book fairs worldwide, and distributed its books in more than 16 countries and 3,000 schools. The group prides itself in publishing the highest-quality books, 30 of which have won prestigious Arab and international awards. Since its inception, Kalimat Group has collaborated with more than 70 authors and 100 illustrators from around the world and translated more than 42 Arabic books into foreign languages. So far, Kalimat Group has published more than 300 Arabic titles.