Abu Dhabi based author Iwona Taida Drózd has reinterpreted three Emirati fairy tales to English

The children’s author Iwona Taida Drózd came to Abu Dhabi in 1989. Delores Johnson / The National

Three brightly illustrated storybooks depicting kharareef — age-old Emirati fairy tales — will be presented at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair on Wednesday and next week.

The Abu Dhabi-based writer Iwona Taida Drózd, from Poland, says when she heard these stories, recounted by her Emirati friends, she immediately saw similarities to the fairy tales from her own childhood, and thus was born Tales of the United Arab Emirates: a series of three books containing themes and characters not unlike those in western culture.

The Turkish-Dutch artist Ufuk Kobas Smink, who conducts art classes and workshops for women’s and children’s organisations in the capital, has provided the illustrations.

“Many stories we know in western culture came from the East,” says Drózd, 56. “People came from India, Persia, and through the Gulf countries with their caravans, and went on to the Mediterranean and Europe. So, often, the roots of these stories go back to other places.”

The first book, How the Fox Got a Bad Reputation, is about a sly fox who pretends to be weak in order to cheat his way to worldly riches, while the ­second book, ­titled Ugly Saber, features a hunchback who uses his frightening appearance to teach naughty children a lesson they'll never forget. Saber ­(Arabic for patient) bears a strong resemblance to Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831). The story was told to Drózd by Emirati Abdulaziz Abdulrahman Al Musallam, a member of the Sharjah Directorate of Heritage, who remembered it from his childhood.

The final book in the set, ­Fatherly Advice, describes the mishaps that befall a man who doesn't pay heed to his father's words, adapted from a book targeted at adults, Sayyid Hamid Hurreiz's Folklore and Folklife in the United Arab Emirates.

Drózd, who came to Abu Dhabi in 1989, served for a while as chancellery executive for the embassy of Poland. In charge of developing cultural relations, she made a six-part documentary on the UAE's culture for Polish TV, and also wrote the book Everyday Life in Abu Dhabi (2004), in which one chapter was dedicated to the country's oral history.

“When I was researching, I met lots of local people through Abu Dhabi’s Cultural Foundation whose doors were always open for me,” says Drózd. “Many became my friends. They recounted to me wonderful stories they’d been told as children. The young people translated what their grandparents were saying into English, and I made notes — they were chaotic, but I got the idea. At home, I wrote my own interpretations of the stories’.”

Drózd then selected 15 stories for her first children's book, A Key to Another World (2009).

"One of these is Cinderella, which in the UAE is titled The Fisherman's Daughter or Bdeha [a kind of fish]. These stories, some of which are hundreds of years old, were faithfully passed down to younger generations," says Drózd. "And while the current generation is not passing them down so much, I do think there's now a renewed interest in collecting traces of the past."

• The Abu Dhabi International Book Fair opens on Wednesday at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre and runs until May 13. The book signing with Iwona Taida Drózd and illustrator Ufuk Kobas Smink is Thursday, May 7, from 5pm to 5.45pm, and on May 13. For more information, visit www.adbookfair.com