ABU DHABI // Two Abu Dhabi schools are hundreds of books better off, thanks to a pair of studious siblings.
Bookworms Khadija Al Khouri, 6, and her brother Abdullah, 4, each won 200 titles for their schools after taking part in the Arabic Primary category of the #UAEReads Challenge.
“We always wanted our children to love books instead of making them addicted to technology,” said their father Sultan, who works for a government company. “The competition has helped us a lot in bringing our children closer to books.
“Now they not only want to win more and more books but also want to read them as quickly as possible.”
Mr Al Khouri said his wife first drew his attention to the competition, suggesting their children should be involved.
Khadija, who goes to Al Bashair Private school in Mussaffah, loves to read fairy tales and her favourite character is Little Red Riding Hood, Mr Al Khouri said.
Abdullah, who attends Creative Kids Academy in Abu Dhabi Gate City, is passionate about dinosaurs and science fiction.
Mr Al Khouri said the extra reading had also improved the children’s Arabic skills.
“Along with other benefits of reading we have seen an improvement in Arabic language among our children,” he said.
“Books, especially storybooks, can be a great source to improve linguistic skills among children.”
As part of the #UAEReads Challenge, The National and publisher Scholastic are is committed to giving away more than 40,000 books.
Teachers have praised the challenge as helping to stir a healthy interest in books among pupils. “As a teacher I have found a remarkable improvement among children’s performance after gaining an interest in reading,” said Yasmin Mana, Khadija’s teacher. “Not just their critical and creative thinking have improved, but also the language.”
Ms Mana pupils now share books with each other. “I used to believe it was impossible to take away their iPads from these young kids but I am so glad that I was proved wrong. I can now see books in these little hands instead of smart devices.”
Each week, as part of the #UAEReads Challenge, three winners are selected at random to receive books for their school.
This year has been declared the year of reading in the UAE to create a generation of book lovers and to consolidate the country’s position as a global capital for culture and knowledge.
Fahmida Seitz, marketing and sales executive at Scholastic, which supplies the books, said so far they had distributed 8,800 books to 33 winners since the competition began in February.
“We are giving away a variety of English and Arabic books from fiction to non-fiction, everything one can imagine,” Ms Seitz said.
“I love seeing the children’s faces when I give them huge boxes filled with books. The excitement and joy on their faces is really rewarding.”
For more information visit thenational.ae/uaereadschallenge.
akhaishgi@thenational.ae
