Kalimat turns storyteller at Turin fest

During its participation at the Turin International Book Fair 2019, the ‘Gallucci-Kalimat’ publishing house brought together more than 300 children at an interactive storytelling session.

Lebanese authors Fatima Sharafeddine and Rania Zbib Daher narrated three stories to them using animation, video clips and live music.

Illustrator Hanane Kai also took the children on a journey to the magic world of stories through her illustrations.

‘Gallucci-Kalimat’ aimed to build a cross-cultural bridge between Arab and Italian children, by offering the three stories in both Arabic and Italian. ‘Ibn Sina’ and ‘Aunt Osha’ by Sharafeddine and ‘The Sound of the Sea’ by Daher were the three stories that were narrated at the session.

The interactive session featured a visual presentation by Hanane Kai in which she made the story come alive with illustrations and background music, creating a magical atmosphere. Rania Zbib Daher presented an animated video that included specially composed music that harmoniously chimed in with the story in her book ‘The Sound of the Sea’.

During the event, Kalimat partnered with Gallucci to organise visits to the city schools to highlight its publications and titles for children and young people. The visits also included reading sessions to illustrate the beauty of the Arabic language and share with the Italian children the elements of art in those literary works.

Gallucci had announced the establishment of the ‘Gallucci-Kalimat’ publishing house at the Rome Book Fair 2018. The joint publishing house aims to promote cultural exchange and strengthen cultural ties between the UAE and Italy and expand the reach of Arabic literature globally.

Gallucci Publishing is one of the world’s leading independent publishing houses and is well-known for publishing quality books for children, including comics, fairy tales for young adults and classical literature.

Recently, Emirates Publishers Association (EPA) has organised a cultural panel about the UAE’s leading role in protecting intellectual property, in addition to the laws issued by EPA in this regard, as part of Sharjah’s guest of honour programme at the Turin International Book Fair (TIBF 2019).

Themed ‘UAE’s Efforts to Preserve Intellectual Property Rights’, the panel was moderated by Rawan Dabbas, Head of International Relations at EPA.