Sudha Anirudh, Indian, mother of a 12-year-old:
My child reads an average of three books per month, each of about 200 to 300 pages. I don’t impose on my child a book that interests me, but as a family, we discuss our reading experiences and then leave it to my child to decide. We don’t consider any topic too big for my child to handle. Children are much more capable than we think. I’m aware of locally published books. I did buy a few by Julia Johnson, the Dubai-based British writer whose stories are woven around the Arab culture and geography. Johnson’s Turtle Secret speaks about the endangered Hawksbill turtle in the Gulf waters and was enjoyed by my daughter.
Khadija Bin Mohsin, Emirati parent of three children aged 20, 17, 15 and a children’s librarian at Dubai Public Library who also recently authored an Arabic book:
As a mother who loves books and reading, since my children were young, I used to take them to different book fairs and let them pick books. My youngest daughter, 15, considered books as her toys. When she was younger, she would mostly choose her book based on the cover. Her love for reading has encouraged her to love writing and participating in writing competitions. In the UAE, it’s a bit challenging to get children to read, but from my experience, I think it is very important for every parent to take their children to the library, to constantly read in front of them, and to take them to book fairs. My youngest one already has her own library of books, novels and magazines she has read. I encourage them to read locally published books to learn more about our culture.
Roopa Jacob, Indian mother of three children aged 13, 11 and 3:
My children are avid readers, sometimes I have to stop them so they can do other things. I started reading to each of them when they were eight months old. I never had to do much after that to get them to read. When my children were younger, the focus was more on visual books. As they grew up, they picked their books of their own choice. My advice to parents who have difficulty getting their children to read is start getting them used to audio-books. During the first three years of a child’s life, parents need to spend at least 20 minutes reading to them. I think that’s the key.
Juliana Kashouh Bokelman, Lebanese mother of three kids:
We have three children, two teens and a pre-teen, and the volume of reading they do varies. When our children were small, we read to them almost daily. They loved acting out the stories. As they grew older, from the ages of 5-10, we encouraged them to read by taking them to book shops and allowing them to choose their own books. We saw their vocabulary, imagination, inquisitiveness, and even critical thinking grow.
