During the 2025 Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival, the emirate’s Kalimat Foundation board of directors announced an inclusive book series, said to be the first in the region. Image: Sharjah Book Authority, Nabs Ahmedi
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘Knowledge Is a Right for All’
The 2025 edition of the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival and its popular Animation Conference closed on Sunday (May 4), with a reported attendance figure of 125,700 attendees from 167 countries—this year separated by more distance than in the past from the Sharjah International Booksellers Conference.
Produced by the Sharjah Book Authority—which is chaired by the Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, with the support of the SBA’s CEO Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, Mansour Al Hassani, the director of publisher services, and Khoula Al Mujaini, the general coordinator of the show—this 16th edition of the Children’s Reading Festival ran for 12 days.
As the program’s book illustration award ceremony closed the run of the show, Al Ameri said that the children’s festival is “an integral part of a larger cultural vision that sees children as active participants in the present, not just as future readers.”
This concept, of course, has been established by the third emirate’s author-ruler, the Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, honored by London Book Fair with its International Excellence Award for his commitment and generosity in creating a reading state, allowing the children’s festival, as Al Ameri said, “to evolve into an international platform for promoting knowledge, nurturing young talent, and expanding creativity.”
During the course of the Children’s Reading Festival, in fact, the Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi convened the board of trustees of the Kalimat Foundation (founded in 2016), in part to announce what is said to be the region’s first inclusive book series for young readers, in collaboration with the publishing house she founded, Kalimat Group (founded in 2007).
The concept of creating an inclusive series, the foundation says, is based in “the mission to make knowledge accessible to every child, regardless of her or his ability, and to create more inclusive, sustainable learning environments.”
‘Reimagining a World in Which Diversity Is Embraced’
The Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi leads a board meeting of the Kalimat Foundation on the sidelines of the 16th Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival. Image: Sharjah Book Authority, Nabs Ahmedi
Seated at Expo Centre Sharjah, the site of the Children’s Reading Festival, the board was led by Al Qasimi to review the creation of the new book series and to back it up with “future strategies to expand the foundation’s humanitarian and educational impact.”
As Publishing Perspectives readers will recall, Al Qasimi is also the founder of the Ara Initiative—a program she discussed at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2020 annual meeting at Davos onstage with David Miliband. And the Ara Initiative’s focus on youngsters who suffer visual impairments, of course, is easily related to the work of the Kalimat Foundation in diversity and inclusion, aligning these programs into a kind of linked portfolio of humanitarian response.
“This new inclusive book series,” Al Qasimi said, “embodies our belief that every child deserves to experience the magic of reading. By creating books that bring together visually impaired and sighted children in a shared reading experience, we are taking a decisive step toward building a more inclusive and compassionate future.
“By creating books that bring together visually impaired and sighted children in a shared reading experience, we are taking a decisive step toward building a more inclusive and compassionate future.”Bodour Al Qasimi, Sharjah Book Authority
“This initiative reflects our commitment to not just closing the accessibility gap, but reimagining a world in which diversity is embraced, and knowledge is a right for all.”
Al Qasimi and the foundation’s timing is good, of course, as the European Accessibility Act goes into force on June 28, opening vast new opportunities for the book publishing world to expand its outreach to those with barriers to reading.
Information on the new book series reports that it carries with it an innovation that makes it valuable and useful to those beyond a community of impaired readers.
“The newly announced inclusive book series,” the foundation’s team writes, “has been designed to serve both visually impaired and sighted children equally.
“Developed with the support of Sharjah Islamic Bank and Sharjah Charity Association, the print-braille collection offers educational and recreational content through printed text, braille, and tactile illustrations, broadening horizons and fostering a shared culture of reading. This initiative is the first of its kind in the region, representing a transformative step forward in accessible publishing and reinforcing Kalimat Foundation’s vision of a future in which every child can learn, imagine, and thrive on an equal footing.”
During the course of the just-closed Children’s Reading Festival, the foundation showcased the inclusive book series at a dedicated pavilion, giving visitors a look for themselves at the format of this inclusive educational approach.
During the meeting, there was also a review of the foundation’s activities this year.
Among the highlights was the donation of 400 Arabic-language books to Palestinian children residing at the Emirates Humanitarian City in Abu Dhabi, carried out under the Pledge a Library initiative and launched in conjunction with the United Arab Emirates’ “Month of Reading” program.
Another milestone discussed was the foundation’s cultural and educational campaign in Morocco, launched as part of the emirate’s Guest of Honor Sharjah participation in the 30th Rabat International Book Fair. The campaign included the distribution of 600 Arabic-language books to schools and associations, including a special award to the winners of the Moroccan Reading Network competition.
A design image of the Guest of Honor Sharjah pavilian at April’s 30th Rabat International Book Fair, the stand itself another trade-show evocation of Sharjah’s international outreach by Weam Ibrahim and his Dubai-based Q7 Exhibition and Event Management. Image: SBC
More from Publishing Perspectives on Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival is here, more on the Kalimat Foundation is here, more on the Kalimat Group is here, more on the Ara Initiative is here, and more on children’s books and reading needs is here.