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 com-forted 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 attrac-tive: "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

Dar al-Kitab: Social Relations in the Arab East

Dar al-Kitab

presents to the Arab reader

a unique and comprehensive social work that examines

all the cultural aspects on which

Arab society rests

Social Relations

in the Arab East

by

Dr. Stuart Dodd

Professor of Social Sciences at the American University of Beirut

Where is the Arab world heading? This book helps every Arab citizen to answer this grave question, and so opens before him the way to take part in deciding the future of the Arab countries.