JEDDAH — Exposing your children to as many books as possible that are varied, enthralling, and in different languages is the best way to pave the way for their academic success and lifelong love of learning. “A house without books is like a room without windows. No man has a right to bring up his children without surrounding them with books, if he has the means to buy them. Children learn to read by being in the presence of books,” said Horace Mann, American education reformer. More and more Saudi women are realizing the shortage of attractive, and engaging children's books in the Arabic language and they are stepping up to the challenge and taking it upon themselves to fill in the gap. Books these days have computers, Ipads, smartphones, and much more to compete with so if they are not colorful and interesting enough, it is difficult to draw children to them. After the success of the first children's book that Hamsa Mutabagani wrote, she dove into writing a second children's book with the same passion but new ideas. Her first book was called "Tala and Friends." Her second book entitled "Adam Sees the Sun for the First Time" aims to spark children's curiosity for the magical and amazing workings of nature. The book immerses the reader in a natural environment, as the characters are out camping in a forest, to reconnect children with the beauty of nature, wildlife, and the Earth. Her vision was to provide little readers with an escape from the technologies that may actually be confining their lively and active imagination and to push them to explore the outdoors. The illustrator of the book, Ranim Darwish, was able to create characters and natural surroundings that look real and can captivate young minds. “Books are my best friends,” confessed Mutabagani at her book signing event to launch this new book. The book singing event was held at Virgin Megastore at Roshana Mall here and was attended by over 50 kids with their parents. An impressive show of dads was a pleasant surprise to the organizers of the event because it is usually the mothers who are more involved in their children's activities. Riam Darwish, communications director and organizer of the event, designed and arranged a model of a campfire at the event. Children sat around the model campfire, listened to the story, and discussed the book while eating marshmallows. There were plenty of fun activities for the children to do to reinforce the concepts that they learned in the book. Children could fix puzzles, draw and color on a large white board, ask the author questions, take pictures, and get their faces painted. The team behind the creation of this book will be visiting children's schools in the Kingdom to read the story to students and allow children to interact and develop of love of reading. The book is now available at Virgin Megastore, Obeikan, and Tihama bookstores in the Kingdom and is also distributed throughout the Middle East and North Africa. The next step will be to translate the author's books into English so that the books can be enjoyed by both Arabic and English speakers. You are giving your children a great advantage when you supply their library at home with books in more than one language. Whether it is Arabic and English, or Urdu and English, or French and Arabic, always provide your children with opportunities to read and to express themselves in more than one language. Research has been showing that bilingualism is actually good for the brain. Studies show that children who have mastered two languages are better able to grasp abstract ideas, are able to adapt to changing environments more flexibly, and resolve conflicts better. Since different areas of the brain are used to switch between two languages, cognitive benefits are produced that can delay and even prevent the onset of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. Other benefits that bilingual children may experience are improved attention to detail, improved memory, improved social skills, increased ability to focus, reduced stress, and reduced risk for depression.
