Making picture books is not as easy as it seems

Dubai: Picture books are not just for children but for adults as well said a panel of children's book authors at the first session of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature. "Picture books can cover lots of things, it doesn't have to be just a learning tool, it can be a shared experience between the child and the parents," said Rauda Al Hallami, author of The Smallest Hump.

"My father would tell me stories of his childhood, of the old days and how wonderful it was. I would always try and picture them in my head, and that's how it started for me," says Shaharazad Al Jaziri, illustrator of Life Without Colour.

Al Hallami and Al Jaziri are part of a group of 13 students from Dubai Women's College (DWC) that undertook a project to write and illustrate picture books for children. These new Emirati writers will be working to promote them, to spread the word and provide inspiration to other potential writers.

Experience

"There was a lot of teamwork and collaboration between the writers and the illustrators," says Al Jaziri.

"It was amazing and frustrating at times, the illustrator would picture something one way and the writer would see it another way, but I cannot tell you the joy of the whole experience."

"I used to write stories in Arabic for adults and teens and post them on the internet, I never thought of writing a children's book," says Al Hallami. Al Hallami says that it usually takes her a week of research and talking to her family to come up with an idea for a story. "With children's stories, it takes me much longer. It's very difficult to find something to write about." Al Hallami's family has owned camels for many generations, "It's the only animal we ever had, and people seem to like camels in general," she says. Her story revolves around a camel with a small hump that has trouble fitting in. "I started writing the story in English, as that was the requirement of the project. After writing the story I finally realized I was writing about myself."