Kalimat Encourages Arab Children in Europe to Engage with their Mother Tongue

UAE’s leading publisher of children’s books participates in Bologna Children’s Book Fair

Sharjah, April 6, 2017

Kalimat - The UAE's leading publisher of high quality Arabic children’s books - has concluded its participation in the 54th edition of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy, with its involvement strengthening the presence of Arabic children's literature in the continent’s top publishing houses.

Highlighting its efforts to advance Arabic children's literature globally, Kalimat also displayed a number of titles translated from other languages, with these books aiming to enrich children's knowledge and fire their imaginations with tales and stories inspired by world cultures.

Kalimat made use of its participation at the prestigious book fair, which was held from April 3-6, to showcase a selection of its titles for children and young people that are compatible with Arab culture and identity. 

During the four-day book fair Kalimat' s delegation conducted a series of meetings with publishing houses operating in the European market and attended conferences and sessions to explore ways of strengthening joint cooperation with participating publishers and authors. Through these activities, Kalimat managed to develop and expand cooperation and partnership with its counterparts from around the world.

Commenting on the Kalimat’s presence at the event, Tamer Said, Managing Director of Kalimat Group, said: "The aim of our participation in the Bologna Children's Book Fair was to exchange expertise with publishing professionals and explore with them avenues of cooperation, as well as to highlight our publications and discuss the feasibility of translating and distributing them in different countries. This was all done to advance our ultimate goal, which is to contribute significantly to improving the Arabic children's publishing industry."

"The fair offered us the perfect platform to connect with publishers and professionals, who expressed a desire to obtain our titles in order to enable their distribution among Arab children living in the west, with the aim of encouraging them to read in their mother tongue and deepening their cultural attachment to their Arab roots," Tamer Said added.

Kalimat made the most of its participation at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair to gain a deeper insight into the publications of other houses, in particular European ones. The representatives discussed opportunities to translate selected titles into Arabic and to reciprocate by translating its own award-winning publications into other languages as part of its drive to promote cross-cultural dialogue and communication.   

Kalimat is the first publishing house in the UAE dedicated solely to publishing and distributing high quality Arabic children’s books that target children up to 16 years of age. With its rich portfolio of publications, Kalimat focuses on producing books with content that contributes to emphasising human values, such as friendship, simplicity, happiness and family, through creative writing and vibrant illustrations. 

Since its inception, Kalimat has achieved widespread presence on the Arab cultural landscape and has won several local awards in recognition of its efforts to advance Arabic children's literature. Kalimat was the recipient of the ‘Best Asian Publisher Award’ at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2016 and the ‘Sheikh Zayed Book Award 2017,’ in the category 'Publishing and Technology’.