Emirati writer Nora Al-Khoury combines caress and suspense in her stories that she presents in the world of child literature, as she does not take preaching a course for her in writing, because of her complete conviction that it is a method that excludes children from the world of reading. In her conversation with Emirates Today, Al-Khoury emphasized that she entered the world of writing for children despite studying environmental science, after she had her first two children and read them, as she was writing stories for them, until she decided to transfer her experience to people, by issuing these stories.

Noura said about her start in the world of writing: «I entered the world of writing for children by chance, because I am a graduate of environmental sciences, and I worked in an oil company as an environmental engineer for four years, and after having a second child I entered the world of stories, especially since I was reading my children's stories, and I also learned to A foreign writer gave me directions and underwent a course at the German Cultural Institute on writing for children. ” She added: "She underwent many courses, as she presented every type of literary writing in the child's world how it is, as well as what the child is looking for suspense and excitement, in addition to the written style and perspective, and the narrator and the speaker."

To date, Noura has presented nine stories for children, in which she does not depend on addressing the child with wisdom, but rather from enjoying the story, so that the child feels that he is living an adventure from the beginning of the book to the end, besides writing in a simplified Arabic language that differs from the academic language in order for the child to love his Arabic language. Al-Khoury considered that the child's pleasure should be far from indoctrination, as she seeks to encapsulate the value that she wants to shed light on through the successful story that carries an adventure, sometimes there is a value present in the story, without being directly explained. And she saw that the method that is far from indoctrination carries more pleasure, and it also causes the child to think about what will happen later, especially since the child curses the smell of preaching from the first page, and this repels him from the book.

The stories are generated by Noura, through the special world of children, by looking to their world, and observing people in cafes, libraries and public parks, and these notes are what lead to the writing of the stories. The Emirati writer reflects the identity and the local environment to some extent in her work, pointing out that when she started writing, and when there was a shortage in this field, it had to reflect the local environment, she presented a book on the Ghaf tree, and another book titled "wet from gold", It is a short story for a child whose mother would prepare a cake of dates, and asked him to pick wet from the shortest palm, and here begins the child's adventure because there is no short palm. She pointed out that writing about the environment and concepts does not fall under the category of bias for the country, but rather comes within writing about concepts, because the writer does not limit himself, but the ideas come out primarily in the name of culture.

Noura experiences stories with her two children at first, she writes ideas in the beginning on a draft, and tests them on more than one group of children, and not only on her two children, because her two children can compliment her, so she tries to read the stories in the workshops she gives to school students, and she tells stories that Not published, see impressions and put them in stories, along with multiple children's questions and their own world. After the story, the drawings are placed, and the priest indicated that she does not interfere in the drawing process, but rather leaves the painter the freedom to present his work with placing some simple notes that the painter must understand, explaining that she presented a silent story composed only of the drawings, and that she can interpret and follow The painter’s proficiency a lot, it enriches the child, and is very interactive with parents and teachers, stressing that it is the publishing house that deals with the painter, not the writer, and therefore the speech is between the two parties, and the writer stays away.

Significant support

Noura El Khoury drew attention to the fact that the Arab book is receiving a noticeable interest, and there is an interest from the leaders in the country to support the publishing market, especially what is directed at children, and we note in book fairs the diversity of drawings which is comparable to the West, but the diversity in literary races is what the Arab library lacks.

Workshops

On the workshops on writing in the field of children's literature and reading children's stories, Noura El Khoury said: “There is a demand for these workshops, and we as writers if one of us is not able to attend, we recommend another writer, so that these workshops are widely present in private and foreign schools, some of them They do not know that there are Emirati women writers, and that our application is available. ”