In the context of the Child Initiative supervised by the Writer and Plastic Artist, Ms. Lina Al-Ali, the Qatari Forum for Authors hosted the Qatari Writer, Jamila Sultan, on Saturday evening, to discuss “Children’s Stories Writing”. The session was streamed on the Forum’s YouTube Channel and social media.
Sultan talked about her experience in the Future Writers’ Jury organized by Qatar Charity, where she supervised 4, 5 & 6 graders, which is considered an advanced age group. This experience allowed her to unearth many writing talents, which is shown in the workshops, especially for students who won the first positions. It was an opportunity to unearth great energies and a great level of awareness and passion, so that she was stunned by the creative energies of many of the participants, affirming the need to help talents, whether in the family or at home.
She gave a set of advice for those looking forward to inter the world of writing, whether children, adolescents or even adults. The first advice is to read a lot, which is considered the first basis for mastering writing, then participation in courses and workshops, and finally trying to write and presenting writings to specialists, affirming the necessary of diversifying readings in order to reach an advanced stage of mastery and, hence, creativity.
In a similar note, she emphasized that there is no difference between her writing career and school supervision, as she plays the role of director and supervisor in both and she always seeks to bring out the best of talents and creativity in writers. She also explained that Hamad bin Khalifa University Publishing House focused on books that attract and benefit children during the pandemic and help them avoid psychological effects that may result from stress, in addition to embedding many values in them and that the publishing house has launched an initiative for writers all over the world for writing about the pandemic in Children literature.
The Qatari Writer called for adopting educational and value messages in the stories to be meaningful and seeking several goals in each story. By her writings, she tried to focus on urging for charity and saving money, in addition to educating children about the problems that people suffer from around the world, such as poverty, hunger, wars and diseases. She indicated that the messages should be indirect and she called for parents to encourage their children to be interested in the Arabic language by directing them to read children’s stories that are simple in terms of language and vocabulary and rich in terms of ideas that should be new and funny.
In the same context, she affirmed the necessity of reading both paper books and electronic books, taking the child’s interest into consideration. So, if the child is interested in technology, we should not prevented him from using it.
The Children’s Literature Initiative will last through August, as it hosts a new group of Qatari and Arab writers specialized in children literature.