Children voicing dreams pushes the world forward at SCRF

The dreams, scribbled on paper tags and hung on the apple tree replica by visiting schoolchildren, are galore. Some are in Arabic and some in English, some are spelt wrong while some have emojis – but the underlying emotion is one of grand dreams for the future. One wants to be a “doctor like her mom” while another wants to be a Power Girl from the American comics. There are more ambitions – to be a businesswoman, a pilot, “a teacher to help kids read”, an animation artist, build robots, open a hospital to help people, and so on.

The wish tree is inspired by the book “The Dream Factory” by Sarah Abdullah and Francesca Filomena, where a little boy who falls asleep listening to his mother’s lullaby dreams of an apple tree and how it helps him fulfil some of his dreams. The tree also has wooden cars, bunnies and paper rockets apart from shiny little apples. “Like the rockets, children can aspire to let their dreams fly,” explained Rama Mohammed who manages the stall.

Kiwi Stories was founded and run by Lebanese author Sahar Naja, who has written a few books in Arabic for the 6-9 age group including Mother’s Scent, a heartfelt tale about the special bond between a mother and her child. Together with award-winning Palestinian illustrator Baraa Awoor, whose captivating illustrations from the picture books are hung on wooden pegs in the stall, she has celebrated the Arabic language’s beauty and flexibility through her works. 

There are other curios at the stall for sale – crochet toys inspired by the children’s story “A Silent Night” available on demand for AED 300 for the whole set and AED 100 for Yousef the protagonist alone; tote bags with images from some of the picture books; flash cards depicting Palestinian culture as well as black keffiyah scarves. 

As the world navigates a cycle of unrest and conflict, festivals like SCRF can only hope to promote peace and goodwill like the anonymous child who wrote on one of the dream tags, “I want the world to be happy”.

Taking place from April 23 to May 4 at Expo Centre Sharjah, the 16th edition of SCRF promises an immersive experience under the theme “Dive into Books”. Organised by the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA), this year’s agenda features 133 guests from 70 countries, and 122 Arab and international publishing houses from 22 nations.