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Steering away from translations of Western classics, publishers began to take serious pedagogical interest in developing children’s literature and illustration in such a way as to be socially, linguistically and aesthetically relevant to the Arab child’s modern context. The leading example is Cairo’s Dar al-Maarif picture-books, written by Kamel Kilani—a pioneering author of Arabic children’s literature—and illustrated by prominent artists such as Hussein Bicar, who spearheaded an artistic movement of indigenous picture-books and comics for children. A subsequent generation and network of Arab artists who studied under him in Cairo’s School of Fine Art, including Ihab Shaker, Mohieddine Ellabbad and Nazir Nabaa, pursued his endeavours beyond Egypt. Ellabbad, in particular, took on the art direction of Dar al-Fata al-Arabi during its foundational years in Beirut from 1974 to 1976. Building on his experience with Dar al-Fata, Ellabbad subsequently set up in Cairo the Arab Experimental Workshop for Children’s Books (al-warsha al-tajribiyya al-arabiyya li kutub al-atfal) as an independent platform where he pursued his decolonial aesthetic explorations and transnational Arab networks of artistic collaborations.
In a whimsical, yet critical, interplay between word and image, young readers are introduced to concepts such as home, hope, social justice, freedom and solidarity, as well as to localised instruction in the alphabet, numbers and colours without shying away from difficult political issues.