'Sharjah Cultural Salon' discusses children's literature

The forum comes in two sessions are held via the visual communication technology ‘Zoom’, coinciding with the Emirati Children's Day.

The first session entitled “Child Literature, Experiences and Challenges”, hosted Dr. Fatima Al Breiki, a writer and publisher of children's books, and Khadija Al Mafarajiya, a poet and writer for children from the Sultanate of Oman. Najiba Al Rifai moderated the session.

Al Breiki spoke through her experience in writing children's literature by stating that writing for children may seem easy to people, but in actuality it is not, because it requires awareness of children.

Al Breiki maintained that she focuses most on the language in her writing because it helps children acquire the skill of reading, adding that main goal of her writing is for children to acquire language skills and to expand their vocabulary and teach them good values in an attractive manner.

Al Breiki touched on the importance of parents' role in selecting what suits their children from books, especially in light of social media, warning that not everything written and published is good for children.

Al Mafarajiya talked about her tendency to write poetic texts for children, as she considers it challenging because writing for children is difficult in itself, and poetic writing is more difficult because it needs many variables to be great. 

Al Mafarajiya also agreed on the importance of parents' awareness in choosing appropriate books for their children, especially translated texts that may not be compatible with our culture and values, highlighting the difficulty to make children read.

At the end of the session, Al Breiki called on parents in light of the current circumstances, with regard to remote learning of children and the use of mobile devices, to motivate their children to exercise and read more paper books.

The event received a large interaction from those interested in the field of children literature and parents.