In My Library

In the latest issue of the magazine "The Woman's Voice" my eye was caught by an advertisement on the subject of "The Child's Library" — a series of illustrated booklets published by "Dar al-Kitab" from the pen of Mrs. Edvick Jureidini Shayboub. I was cheered and comforted by the news, for our need of Arabic books for our children has long occupied my mind, and this question was, for years past, the concern of a large company of men of letters... My eyes traveled from the beginning of the series to its end, reading the titles of the books one after another: "Riyad on His Grandfather's Farm," "Rima and the Fisherman," "Sami's Letter," "My Cow Zahra," "Samir at the Grape-Picking," "Layla and the Policeman," and finally "A Trip in the Airplane."

The titles pleased me before I had read a word of their contents or seen a single one of their pictures, and I set about inquiring after the news and learning more of it. I was told that "Dar al-Kitab" had formed a committee of persons of experience and special competence, working with toil and diligence to produce books for children and to fill this gap in our Arabic letters.

Then someone came to tell me that the first booklet had appeared and was in the bookshops. That very day I obtained a copy of it, and found it charming and attractive: "Riyad on His Grandfather's Farm." I read the booklet page by page, and found it abounding in profit, for it is a lovely presentation of farm life in the village. This side of our life our children have almost forgotten, or never known; and it grieves us that their minds should let it slip, for its scenes are dear to us and close to our nature!

I made my way to "Dar al-Kitab," and there I made the acquaintance of Mrs. Edvick Jureidini Shayboub, who founded the kindergarten of the Lebanese Women's League and was its head for the past two years, and who now writes and lectures on children's literature and on the education of the child, and takes part in editing the magazine "The Woman's Voice." When I asked her what direct impulse had moved her to compose this series, she answered: "My child Sarmad, with his many questions, was the greatest incentive and spur to writing these booklets." And she hopes and prays that these books will succeed, so that she may follow them with many more.

Mrs. Shayboub was kind enough to show me the contents of the whole series, and I found it treating subjects from the very heart of life in our country — varied and many-hued in their directions, keeping pace with the child's taste and inclinations. Their benefits may be summed up as follows:

First: they answer the common questions our children so often ask. In this series the author answers some of those questions which our children have so often put to us, gazing up at us with eyes brimming with longing and love of knowledge:

"How are fish caught?
How did this letter arrive from Iraq?
Where do milk and butter come from?
How is dibs made?
Who guards our houses at night?"
And the author answers these questions in a light language and a natural, pleasing style.

Second: they add to the scanty information our children acquire on their own. Most children know where milk comes from, but they are delighted when they learn that labneh and cheese and butter are all made from milk; and likewise they enjoy eating raisins once they know that raisins are merely dried grapes.

Third: they stir them to activity, to inquiry and independent thinking, in emulation of the children described in these books. When a child reads of "Rima's adventures" with the fisherman on the seashore, it pleases him to imitate Rima, to try her experiments, and to go them one better... And when he sees the picture of the airplane and hears its description and how it flies, that description makes him long to learn ever more of the secrets of flight.

Fourth: they satisfy in them the appetite for reading — for reading the subjects they love, in the language they love; and thus the intended aim is fulfilled. For our children, from their first acquaintance with the handling of books, keep asking for Arabic books made especially for them — and here they are now in their hands: they may turn their pages as they please, and feast their eyes on their Arabic phrases and their Arabic pictures!

This collection of picture books will delight children from the age of three to ten. They read them for themselves once they have passed the second primary class. Before that, when reading is beyond them, someone answers them by reading the text to them, pointing with his finger to the picture matching the text — thereby securing for the child both a great pleasure and a great profit.

The language the author has followed is the classical tongue that comes close to the colloquial. She met with great difficulty in achieving that reconciliation: she has picked out every easy word, and banished every word that carried any harshness or over-depth of meaning. In my opinion she has succeeded, and her booklets have come out in the form she wanted.

The booklet is printed on glossy paper, in a size suited to a child's hands — neither too big nor too small — and adorned with large colored pictures. The text is printed in large, clear letters, fully voweled, so as to remove every difficulty of reading and of grasping the meaning on the child's part.

This series is a new departure in children's literature, and it will without doubt fill a great void in their lives. We wish it success, and we hope that "Dar al-Kitab" will continue to favor us, from time to time, with a delightful collection like this one.