- Al Jazeera Children’s Channel (JCC) signed an agreement with Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing (BQFP), Qatar’s first publishing house, to publish a series of books inspired by the Channels’ most popular programs and educational characters. The “Fafa” book series based on JCC’s famous Baraem character will be the first to be launched. The series of books will be distributed by BQFP in Qatar, across the Arab region, and in international markets.
This step comes as part of the channel’s strategy to further expand Baraem’s reach to more pre-school children and to generate more interactivity and family engagement. By collaborating with BQFP and drawing on their publishing expertise, the Channel aims to produce a creative and educational book series that will appeal to young children and create a passion for reading.
Further agreements with leading Arab and international publishers are in the pipeline. This project comes as JCC pledges to enrich the lives of Arab children by promoting reading and helping them develop their creative and learning abilities.
JCC’s Executive General Manager, Mahmoud Bouneb said: “We strive to diversify our communication tools with children to achieve the highest and most effective reach. There is a major readership deficit in the Arab world nowadays. Therefore, we have taken this initiative in order to provide appealing and vivid content for children in their formative years and play a key role in the rise of an avid readers’ generation. We are also hoping to assist parents involved in their children’s reading activities.”
Amira Abed, Education Program Developer at Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing said: “We at BQFP are delighted to work on this new children’s book series with JCC. “Fafa” in recent years has gained unmatched popularity to become one of the most popular characters developed specifically for pre-school children in the Arab world.“
“Award-winning author Sally Grindley will write this series of books basing her characters on “Fafa” and her friends and bringing in new adventurous plots that children just love. Illustrator Sirine Matta has created delightful versions of the characters for the printed page. I think fans of “Fafa” will be delighted with this new series. The books will be released in Arabic and English editions at the same time later this year.”
