Bridging cultures through bilingual and trilingual books

Nour Arab, Founder, has authored more than 27 bilingual children’s storybooks. She has won translation grants for many titles, having international titles translated into more than 10 languages, and translating more than 50 titles. Here, she shares more about her publishing house.

AABP: What age group and types of books do you publish?

Nour: More than 50 of our books are bilingual (Arabic-English) while 3 are bilingual (Arabic-French), and 1 book is trilingual (Arabic-English-Spanish). Besides, we have 30 titles in Arabic, 10 titles in English and 1 silent book. Majority of the books are targeting early childhood and are series based. I have intended in making the book series in the form of graded reading, so there is a slight development in word structure in every book in the series.

Our books also are focused on values like Translanguaging, Cultural Bridging & Sharing Knowledge, Motherhood & Storytelling: Making children stories is a process “made with love,” Originality: Our stories are made with beautiful art, love, and harmony in between and Universality: the content of our children’s stories can easily connect with “every kid’s home!”

We publish more than 20 titles a year.

AABP: Share a brief about the authors you publish.

Nour: Since 2018, we have published many female voices around the world, which include more than 18 distinguished female voices from the UAE; 9 from Syria; 6 each from KSA and Jordan; 2 each from Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt and Brazil; and 1 each from Kuwait, Bahrain, Algeria, Armenia, Argentine, UK and India.

The catalogue includes stories reflecting on motherhood, such as Osama & Naya series by Nour Arab & Life series by Safia Alshehi, voice of the expo, as well as empowering narratives like the silent story.

And what is significant about our publications is that some authors who are not from the UAE were passionate about writing about the UAE. For example, we published The Houbara’s Nest, a story about an endangered animal in the UAE by a brazilian author, Veronika Topic Eleoterio. We also published Hazza the Space Hero by the Syrian author Dr. Hala Martini. I have also published many titles by UAE children authors, such as Dahi Al Kaabi who published 4 book adventure storybooks, featured for this achievement in UAE Barq, among these titles is My Jourey with the Dragon, the first bilingual children’s book about the Emirati hope probe published in November 2020, when Dahi was only 5 years old.

AABP: How do you deal with multi culturalism in your books?

Nour: We aim to bridge cultures through bilingual and trilingual children’s storybooks. Initially focused on bilingual works, we have expanded to include trilingual stories, catering to more diverse audiences. This evolution is attributed to participation in international book fairs and collaborations with global publishers, helping to extend the reach of our titles worldwide.

Through translation grants, we have made significant strides in bringing multilingual stories to life, with titles translated into languages including Serbian, Georgian, French, Icelandic, Ukrainian, Spanish, and Polish. Collaborations with notable publishers across Serbia, Iceland, Georgia, Canada, Rwanda and Argentina have solidified our presence in both European and North American markets.

An example of a successful translation rights collaboration was a project between Nour Publishing (Sharjah, UAE) and BookLand Press (Toronto, Canada), made possible with the support of the Sharjah International Book Fair translation grant. This initiative saw the publication of two children’s books by Nour Arab—A Flower for Mommy and Samsoom Loves the Sleepy Moon—in Arabic, French, and English, bringing these two stories to the North American market. Jean-Philippe Linteau, Consul General of Canada in the UAE, read the book with us in English, French and Arabic. This spectacular gesture of reading the story in three languages to a wonderful audience of kids in UAE schools set a lovely expression of diversity and inclusion in books.

AABP: Tell us about your collaborations with different publishers across the globe?

Nour: I have always found tremendous joy in connecting with international publishers and learning from different cultures and experiences. Therefore, I always look forward to fruitful networking and engagement in buying and selling rights.

Samsoom & Naya series by Nour Arab won Sharjah translation grant and has been sold to Agora Publishing House in June 2021. The series was translated into Serbian language and distributed in Serbia, Montenegro, and all Serbian territories as a bilingual series (Serbian-English).

Samsoom Loves the Sleepy Moon and A Flower for Mommy by Nour Arab won Sharjah translation grant and have been sold to Bookland Press INC. in June 2022. They were translated into French language and distributed in North America.

Lulu and the Wonderful Umbrella by the Emirati writer Moza Alkaidi won Sharjah translation grant. It was translated into Georgian and published by Shemetsneba Publishing House in Georgia in July 2021.

We also won Sharjah translation grant for Sunday Rain by Rosie J. Pova. Nour Publishing translated the story, that was featured in the New York times, into Arabic and published it in the UAE in 2023.

We also launched a bilingual Arabic-English children storybook Wild Imagination that was originally published in Iceland by Huginn Thor Grétarsson from Óðinsauga. In return, Huginn Thor bought the rights of A Flower for Mommy by Nour Arab and published it in both Ukrainian and Icelandic languages. In July 2024, a new agreement has been made with Huginn Thor Grétarsson of publishing Naya’s Dreams and Samsoom Loves to take a Bath to Icelandic/Polish and Icelandic/Spanish; and publishing “Greg the Grumpy” by Huginn Thor Gretarsson as a bilingual Arabic/English book in the UAE.

Fahood series by Nour Arab also won Sharjah translation grant 2024 and is being translated into French by Mudacumura Publishing house in Rwanda.

Also in July 2024, we bought the rights of El Regalo Que Espero by Virginia Piñón from the Argentinian publishing house, AZ Editora. The story was translated by Nour Publishing into Arabic and published as a trilingual story (Arabic-English Spanish) titled The gift I long for-El Regalo Que Espero, upon winning Al Maktaba Grant for Library Books.

In September 2023, we also translated the story The Bald Hedgehog by the former Armenian first lady, Nouneh Sarkissian and published it in the UAE. The translated edition was featured on Nouneh Sarkissian’s website.

AABP: Where all are your books distributed?

Nour: There are direct sales through our stand in all UAE fairs. Also, through school book fairs, book signings. All our books are available in physical book stores like all branches of Dubai Library Distributors in UAE. They are sold through various online retailers within UAE and abroad such as nwf.com. Another primary sales channel has been through Menassah distribution company, that participates in almost all book fairs outside UAE.I have also previously sold big quantity of my books to libraries and schools in Malaysia, especially the Islamic community.

The titles I have written are available in almost all school libraries in the UAE and have sold more than 100,000 copies since 2018. And the 23 titles I have written within Osama & Naya series are to be distributed in all branches of Jarir book stores in the Gulf by 2025.

AABP: Which is your bestseller?

Nour: Samsoom and Naya series and I believe that is because it delivers genuine emotions inspired by my children Osama and Naya, whom I wrote in about 23 titles so far, as a way to archive beautiful memories together. This was seen in Gulf Today newspaper, 2020, as “creating a new methodology in writing children’s stories” through the curious eyes of my children by reflecting the beautiful details that take place in every family home in the presence of a child.They have been best sellers as bilingual books in the middle east since 2018.

AABP: How important are illustrations? Do tell us about your illustrators.

Nour: I am proud to say that our catalogue include titles for creative illustrators from all different cultures. And in the past years, I have noticed that each culture has its own unique style of art that resembles it. And I celebrate the uniquness that art carries coming from each culture and love to embrace all these different styles in our list of titles.

I also see that the art of every story relies a lot on the spirit of the text. For example, in our silent story The Hermit that dipects the oppression of a woman, the art was done by a Syrian artist to illustrate the strength of an Arab woman to gain her freedom. That style of illustration associated with the background of the artist very much matched the concept of the book.

AABP: How can we promote love for reading in children?

Nour: By reading from an early age.I am always motivated to create stories about family bonding, growing up, promoting linguistic and emotional development, light cheerful adventures and heartwarming feelings.

Being a publisher for early childhood, I aspire doing campaigns that raise awareness of the necessity of reading to children and I am particularly passionate about reaching Arab communities, where Arabic titles for children are less accessible.

AABP: Your message to our readers…

Nour: I believe that bridging cultures through books is the most beautiful thing! I also see motherhood as a space for creativity. It has always pushed me forward in discovering my talents and skills. I also recognize that being an Arab female entrepreneur in a nurturing society did not limit me from achieving many of my dreams. Therefore, I aim for my journey in the upcoming years to empower aspiring women and mothers like me. I aspire to leave a valuable impact on children’s literature and touch the hearts of children and mothers on a larger, universal scale.