A Review of the Winning Books of the 3rd Ed. of the
ACBPF Award 2016
A Review of the
Winning Books of the 3rd Ed. of the ACBPF Award 2016
Reviewed by:
Yaqoub Al-Sharouni
Mr.
Sharouni presents a review of the three winning books of the 3rd
edition of Arab Children's Books Publishers Forum (ACBPF) Award for Best Book
of the year 2016 in three categories: early childhood stage (younger than 6
years), middle childhood stage (6 - 9) years, and adolescence (12 – 16) years.
"Atfi Al-Anwar"
(Turn
the Lights off) by: Maitha Al-Khayat
Illustrator:
Gustavo Aimar
Publisher:
Kalimat Publishing UAE
This
book won the Book of the Year Award for early childhood, a rare category among
other Arab Children's books. The subject is very age-relevant; a child who does
not feel sleepy and refuses to go to sleep because he wants to keep on playing
with his baby animal friends. He sneaks out to play with them at the stable; a
common behavior among toddlers and preschoolers.
"Atfi
Al-Anwar" has recurrent words and phrases to help
toddlers and preschoolers acquire new vocabularies like "Excuse
me!"; "May I...?";
"I am sorry"; "my
baby is asleep"; and "Please, turn
the lights off". The Arabic names for each baby animal
and the names of their sounds are found throughout the story although they may
not be used in children's everyday life at home. Sharouni wonders whether it is
age appropriate to use the story to introduce these words at such an early age.
However,
Sharouni complements the illustrator for writing the sounds of animals and
birds in their drawings exactly how a preschooler would hear them in real life:
MO, MO for cows, MAAAA for sheep, WAK WAK for ducks, and BAK.BAK.BAK for hens.
Toddlers and preschoolers find these sounds fun and adorable to say over and
over again.
The
illustrator has succeeded, adds Mr. Sharouni, to provide (11) average sized
scenes in addition to (4x) zoomed-in portraits which are perfectly easy to
comprehend for little readers. The storyboard starts with a panoramic detailed
illustration of a farm spreading over the first two pages. However, avoiding
such general scenes in other pages throughout the story is one great feature of
this book. Otherwise, a child under 6 years-old would be overwhelmed by
details. Another great age-appropriate feature of this story is the use of
short phrases and abstaining from using too much pronouns and conjunctions,
thus simplifying and shortening sentences to suit early childhood apprehension.
Besides, the author uses simple vocabularies from everyday life which are
common to preschoolers.
"Atfi
Al-Anwar" indeed presents toddlers and preschoolers an attractive,
comprehensible, and outstanding story making it worthy of ACBPF Book of the
year Award.
"Warqat Al-Hayat"
(The
Leaf of Life), by Amira Al-Marzouqi
Illustrations:
Ahmad Suleiman
Publisher:
Al-Alam Al-Arabi for Publishing and Distribution
Winner
of ACBPF Book of the Year Award for middle childhood
This
book is an example of creativity and innovation. It is about a tree leaf
handpicked by a little girl to make it as a bookmark for her diary. The
little girl's emotions, sincere feelings, and goodness give life to the leaf
retaining its freshness and color. The young girl later moves the leaf to live
among stories and encyclopedias. When people read books in which the leaf
resides it grows roots and branches and turns into a small plant. It is moved
onto the dining table and later to the garden. The more people read around it,
the bigger it grows. More people come to read under its shadow, until one day
it becomes the center of a large open-air library for the whole city. "It
is an innovative and unprecedented idea" says Mr. Sharouni, "which
encourages young readers to love books and be passionate readers."
Mr.
Sharouni is mesmerized by the "Warqat Al-Hayat" illustrator's
innovative ability to portray an amazing life cycle of the leaf turning into an
aging tree while maintaining a distinguished character for the leaf. The
illustrator's genius lies in using miscellaneous Arabic calligraphy art as backgrounds
for pages.
"Warqat
Al-Hayat" is a book where a story about the passion of reading is
complemented by the innovative use of Arabic calligraphy as an authentic
aesthetic component of the book's illustrations. In addition, printing,
bookbinding and color separation precision all come together along with the
innovative story and illustrations to compose an attractive aesthetic
invitation into the world of reading.
"Nozol Al-Zorah Al-Safra"
(Yellow
Corn Motel), by Anas Abu Rahma
Publisher:
Al-Ahlia for Publishing and Distribution
Winner
of the ACBPF Book of the Year Award in the adolescents' books category
The
real protagonist of the story is neither the motel nor the surrounding corn
fields which are threatened to destruction and requisition by businessmen. It
is a little girl named Mina whose diary accompany the reader throughout the
story telling stories about "Souki" the dog, and "Siso" an
old and sick lion. Mina embodies intelligence, imagination, creativity, talent,
mystery, compassion, and an extraordinary love for scientific thinking. Mina is
hilariously preoccupied with experiments and foreseeing outcomes in spite of
her teachers' bewilderment about the futility of these experiments.
"Nozol
Al-Zorah Al-Safra" is characterized by reliance on narrative techniques
rather than on plot which makes it closer to postmodern literature. However,
the subsidiary economic detective plot allows readers to explore potentials,
emotions, intelligence, scientific thinking, and love for animals among various
characters.
Mina's
adolescent brother, who dropped school early in his life to help his family run
the motel, narrates the story. Narration is closer to poetry, imaginative, and
sentimental. The text provides wonderful portrays with descriptive words. The
narrator implicitly sends a hidden and sometimes humorous invitation to read,
"I loved reading because of Mina and the books she kept
bringing from the school's library for me to read." Later
he adds, "Actually, it was Mina's diary which got me
attached to reading, I have peeped at it since I accidently found it under her
mattress".
At
last, the subsidiary conspiracy against the peasants establishes a narrative
and descriptive background around characters and scenery.
In
fact, "Nozol Al-Zorah Al-Safra" indeed needs to be read again and
again in order to unlock its hidden secrets which make it worthy of the ACBPF
Award.
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