Sharjah Book Fair receiving entries for Children's Book Award

SIBF has received entries from the UAE and abroad, and this year's competition is expected to be a distinguished one due to the volume of participating works as well the number of participating authors and illustrators. Special attention has also been given to works for children with visual impairment.

The winners will be announced during a special ceremony to be held on the sidelines of the Sharjah Children's Reading Festival.

On the occasion, Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, Director of SIBF, said, "His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qassimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, has continuously supports humanitarian projects, and is always interested in children's issues. Thanks to His Highness Sheikh Sultan and his immense support for children the Emirate of Sharjah is home to prestigious institutions dedicated to children and their related issues, in addition to sound legislation and policies that are in place to meet the needs of children."

Al Ameri commented, "Children with special needs have always been in the focus of cultural initiatives that aim to support and promote a culture of reading among them. The institution of the children's book award for children with visual disabilities is yet again concrete evidence of Sheikh Sultan's great support and care for this sector of the community, and SIBF has a rich portfolio of initiatives and events that aimed at helping to achieve the objectives set for visual impaired children."

He noted that he expects that the new edition of this award would be a major success, because of the expertise of the judging panel , the nature of the submitted literary works, and the great support is has received.

The Sharjah Children's Book Award was launched to encourage authors and other creative individuals to produce high quality children's books that can help develop children's literary and cultural abilities, increase their literary awareness, and enrich the Arabic library with quality literary works for children.

The award targets publishing houses by selecting the best children's book of the year through an assessment of all the relevant publications by the publisher. It also targets writers and illustrators through "editorial text and visual text". The award covers four age categories, including 3-5 years, 6-8 years, 9-13 years and 7-13 years. The award is AED 150,000 for each category.

Entrants must abide by the rules and criteria set by the Judging Panel of the awards. The conditions for submitting entries include, among others that the book must be original with a new topic, and must have been published no earlier than two years prior to the year of the call for entries. In addition, entries should not be recipients of any previous local, regional or international awards. Translated or quoted books are excluded. Series, educational and scientific books, are also excluded. The age category targeted by the work should be specified in the participation form and the participating works will be evaluated by a jury of experts in the field.

The second award, the Sharjah Children's Book Award (Optically Challenged Reader Award) is dedicated to works targeting children with visual impairment. The award's value is AED20, 000.

The conditions for participating in this award include that the work must target children aged 1-17 years and the participating book must be original and new in its topic. Participation in the Award might be through new, creative or reproduced designs, or "amended books" from other published books or those available in the market, with a written authorisation from the original author. The works submitted for participation shall be complete and ready to publish.

Regarding selection criteria, SIBF decided to exclude entries that do not meet the conditions for touch illustrations, including the use of different methods for forms and contours and pasting illustrations properly. The participating books must be clearly visible, written in large-font texts and in Braille. The books should be easy to open, browse, and read by touch.

Participants must take into consideration the use of bright and contrasting colours to stimulate the vision of poor-sighted children. The text should have a decent literary merit with no mistakes in drawing, language, or expression. The award covers three age categories, including 1-6 years, 7-12 years and 13-17 years old.