ABU DHABI // A five-year-old bookworm yesterday became the first pupil to receive a collection of 200 books for her classroom in The National's #UAEReads Challenge.
Zahra Hamra Krouha, an Algerian pupil at Al Bashair Private School in Mohammed bin Zayed City, Abu Dhabi, took part in last month’s challenge – to send in a photograph of the last book she had read.
She sent in a shot of Eid Shoes, by Fatima Sharafeddine, in the Arabic Primary category, for children between 4 and 11.
In the campaign, which is run in partnership with publishers Scholastic and runs throughout the year, 40,000 Scholastic books will be given out to category winners.
Zahra said she believed she won because she reads a lot and she encourages all her classmates to read, too.
“I love reading, in Arabic and English, and I read every day,” she said. “After I come back from school, I have my lunch and do my homework and then I sit and read a book.”
She is thrilled to have more Arabic stories to read and thinks reading is a route to success.
“I tell kids to read more and do their assignments, and when children read books, they can understand the things they did not know before as, for me, I used to think that the colour of water was white and, from reading, I found it’s transparent,” said Zahra, who wants to be a police inspector when she grows up.
Her mother Latifa, a nursery teacher, said that the family does not have a television at home, only books and educational DVDs.
“She has controlled viewing, and she watches educational DVDs and she has computer, but only for very controlled educational programmes,” she said.
“After finishing her studies and activities, I sit and read with my three-year-old son, and Zahra with her own book. Every night I read them a story, too.
“I read to them in English and my husband reads to them in Arabic. Zahra reads at least three books a day.”
She said she believed schools should concentrate more on reading books rather than use only technology, and that children should go to libraries, pick a book and read.
“Every child should have a library – this is very important – and they should go to the library and open a book, not an iPad but a book,” she said.
Latifa thought there needed to be a renewed focus on the Arabic language.
“The promotion of Arabic authors and Arabic books is very important for the education of the Arabic language in the Arab world,” she said.
“There should be more Arabic books in libraries, not just English, because the language is rich and it’s our identity and we have to teach our children to love it.”
Mona Halabi, Zahra’s Arabic language teacher, said she was a clever pupil who loved learning new things and helping her classmates.
“She has passion for learning new words and she cares about knowing the meaning of them as well,” Ms Halabi said.
“She can easily compose words from letters.
“She is also more outstanding in reading than her classmates because she tries to be precise in pronunciation and reads in classical Arabic, in which she can read a sentence or two fluently from the first time she sees it.”
Zahra’s English teacher, Manal Mortada, was also full of praise for the youngster.
"I always give her difficult things to do and she does the best, and she is fantastic at reading," she said. For more information on The National's #UAEReads Challenge for March — the Stop, Drop and Read! challenge — visit www.thenational.ae/uaereadschallenge.
roueiti@thenational.ae
