United Arab Emirates

Established in 2009, the UAEBBY seeks to promote global awareness through children’s books and provide books of high literary and artistic standards as well as provide necessary support and training for authors and illustrators who are interested in children’s literature.

Over the years, the UAEBBY has worked unwaveringly to further its mission, and was recognised for its outstanding accomplishments. In 2016, the UAEBBY was presented with a ‘UAE Pioneers Award’ for being the ‘Best Non-profit Organisation to Encourage Reading among Young Adults’ by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE. Etisalat by e& was also given a ‘UAE Pioneers Award’ for the ‘Best Private Sector Initiative to Encourage Reading among Children’ in acknowledgment of the Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature, which is organised by the UAEBBY.

Mission:

1. To facilitate communication and information exchange among individuals and] organisations concerned with children’s literature in the UAE and abroad.
2. To give children in the UAE the opportunity to have access to books of high literary and artistic standards.
3. To stimulate research and scholarly studies in the field of children’s literature.
4. To encourage the publication and distribution of quality children’s books in the UAE and to help raise the standards of Arabic children’s books to international levels.
5. To provide aspiring and published authors and illustrators as well as publishing houses based in the UAE with networking, information exchange, and capacity building opportunities.
6. To provide support and training for professionals working with children in the field of children’s literature and the promotion of a reading culture.
7. To promote international understanding through children’s books.

• Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature

The Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s literature was launched in 2009. It aims to provide an incentive for publishers, authors, and illustrators to publish Arabic children’s books that are of the highest quality in both form and content. The Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature is considered to be one of the most important literary awards for children’s literature in the Arab region.

The value of the Award is AED 1.2 million, distributed across 5 different categories; 4 categories are consistent while the 5th is subject to change every 2 years.

Every year, winners are announced in during the opening ceremony of Sharjah International Book Fair. Since its launch, the Award has been sponsored by Etisalat by e&.

• Warsha Programme

In 2013, the UAEBBY launched ‘Warsha – Etisalat Award Workshop for Children’s Books,’ a ground-breaking initiative by the Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature that aims to find and nurture a new generation of talented Arab authors, illustrators, and publishers of Arabic children’s books. The initiative aims to build the skills and competence of young individuals in order to facilitate the creation of books that are rooted in local Arabic culture and that not only meet but surpass international standards.

• Read. Dream. Create

In 2013, the UAEBBY launched ‘Read. Dream. Create’ campaign to bring children and books closer to each other, promote the importance of reading in UAE’s society, and build children’s capacities to read, write, innovate, and create through children’s storybooks. The campaign is also designed to develop children’s and young adults’ interpretation skills and provide them with the tools necessary to turn their ideas into stories. In addition, the campaign takes part in organizing various activities, such as reading sessions at schools and public places. It also holds a yearly competition for young story creators and illustrators across the emirates.

In 2020, the campaign launched “The Book Club”, which offers young readers the opportunity to discover, explore, and discuss new books with their authors.

• Books – Made in the UAE

Launched in 2012, Books Made in UAE aims to encourage the creation of Emirati children’s and young adults’ books by Emirati writers and illustrators to reflect the cultural values and interests of the children and young adults of the UAE.

The project seeks to build the capacity and skills of young Emirati writers and illustrators,under the supervision of a group of renowned international illustrators, writers, and experts. Past themes included: children’s picture books, young adult books, comics, Emirati folktales, silent books, and books on children's rights and safety.

• Kan Yama Kan

"Kan Yama Kan", taken from the expression used to begin most Arabic children’s stories, is an initiative that was launched in 2015 and it aims to provide quality books to children in areas that suffer from difficulties in gaining access to books as a result of social or natural conditions, unrest, and wars. These books are to serve as a source of knowledge, entertainment, and psychological support.

Each year, in the spirit of the holy month of Ramadan, Kan Yama Kan organizes book donation campaigns throughout the Emirates. The books are collected and then delivered to children living in less fortunate circumstances around the world through a network of partners.

• Guest of Honour

The UAEBBY’s “Guest of Honour'' initiative, which began in 2015, seeks to cultivate new relationships with different IBBY sections, allow local talent to learn from the experience of international experts, and encourage reading among UAE’s diverse communities. As it is known, the UAE is a multicultural country, and this initiative hopes to embody this sprit.

During Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival, the UAEBBY hosts a different IBBY section each year. As a part of their visit, guests would have their own section in the UAEBBY’s stand to display their work and do readings, workshops, and more. The guests include an author, an illustrator, and a representative of the IBBY section.

• Bibliotherapy

The never-ending gifts of books extend beyond providing readers with information or entertainment. Books offer their readers a safe space to explore the world around them, unravel their seemingly unfathomable internal processes, and could possibly help them move past trauma. Therefore, the UAEBBY strongly promotes bibliotherapy; a term that denotes people’s use of books as means for therapy and solving personal problem.

Our efforts include conducting a series of extensive workshops, the first of their kind, resulting in training and graduating the first Emirati bibliotherapists team. UAEBBY also collaborated with established bibliotherapists, authors, publishers, psychologists, and psychiatrists to create an exhaustive list of Arabic books that could be used in bibliotherapy in general but especially aimed at children who suffered from war. Moreover, the UAEBBY has shared the first Arabic guide to bibliotherapy in 2018, which was later published in 2020.

• Silent Books Exhibitions

The UAEBBY has successfully organized four distinct editions of Silent Books Exhibitions, each contributing to the promotion of silent books and diverse literary experiences.

• Silk Road Book Exhibition

Silk Road was an ancient network of routes that connected the East and West. It was central to cultural interaction between the regions for many centuries. The 2019 exhibition “Silk Road” examined a new ‘Road’ connecting these two worlds: the stories that travel through books to young readers in far off places. The Silk Road Book Exhibition was hosted in collaboration with Maraya Art Center in Sharjah which brought together a wide collection of narrative, picture, and general-knowledge books on China: 100 titles testifying to publishing excellence in Europe and the US. Some were by Chinese writers living in the West, others by non-Chinese authors who paid tribute to Chinese culture.

• Fairy Tales Come True: Worlds from the Imagination of Hans Christian Andersen Exhibition

In 2020, the UAEBBY organized the ‘Fairy Tales Come True: Worlds from the Imagination of Hans Christian Andersen’ exhibition in collaboration with Sharjah Museums Authority in celebration of Sharjah as the World Book Capital and the city where the first Andersen exhibition in the Arab region took place. The exhibition included high resolution copies of his drawings, manuscripts, papercuts, and other artwork provided by Odense City Museums, as well as interactive displays and props that brought his fairy tales to life.

• Folktales Reimagined

In an ever-shrinking world, as our boundaries blur, we wondered what would happen if traditional folktales were reimagined by a different culture and generation? The Folktales Reimagined project aims to artistically answer these questions. The project, which was born out during the Sharjah World Book Capital (SWBC), has now been adopted by UAEBBY. Our aims is to continue honouring heritage while promoting cross-cultural dialogue and exchange of ideas. The project invites artists from very different cultures to reimagine each other’s most popular folk tales. Currently, there are three distinct iterations of this Exhibition: Folktales Reimagined at Bologna, Italy (2022); Folktales Reimagined at Guadalajara, Mexico (2022); Folktales Reimagined at Seoul, South Korea (2023); Folktales Reimagined at Abu Dhabi, UAE (2023).