The Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation, the cultural and social arm of the Arab Bank Group, announced the shortlist for the 19th session of the Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for Children’s Literature, focusing this year on travel literature in stories aimed at children aged 9 and above. The list included 9 creative works from 5 Arab countries, including Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Morocco, and Oman. The selected stories varied between adventures in historical worlds, imaginary journeys to cities that speak with stones, reflections on food as a cultural medium, and explorations of buried treasures and memories colored with nostalgia.

Choosing travel literature as the theme reflects a conscious trend to revive this literary art, which has long been a mirror for self-discovery through the other. In the heritage of Arab literature, travel literature forms an ancient tradition starting from Ibn Battuta to Amin Al-Rihani and Taha Hussein.

However, the novelty here is harnessing this art within the context of children’s literature, with its educational and imaginative dimensions. The journey in the competing stories is not merely a geographical movement but a tool to explore values, cultures, fears, and even language itself.

The journey becomes an exercise in imagination and getting to know the other, whether it is a pink city, Mount Kilimanjaro, or a grandmother cooking a secret meal.

Each shortlisted work embodies the concept of the journey in its own way; some drew on heritage, others on real geography, and others wove virtual worlds bringing children closer to concepts of freedom, loss, belonging, and coexistence.

The Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for Children’s Literature was launched in 2006 to be a platform that enhances Arabic literature directed at young people and gives writers a platform to engage with contemporary cultural and educational questions.

The award alternates annually between the arts of story, poetry, novel, and theater, witnessing a noticeable increase in nominations, with 1,349 writers from various Arab countries applying in this session.

What distinguishes this award is that it does not only honor winners but seeks to shape a new Arab taste regarding children’s literature, a field historically suffering from marginalization or traditionalism.

While children’s literature in the Arab world has often been described as educational and directive, a new wave of writers tends towards symbolism, wonder, and inner travel.

From this perspective, “the journey” in these texts becomes a metaphor for leaving the familiar, opening up to diversity, and dialoguing with the unknown.

Interestingly, some shortlisted works deliberately play on the overlap between the real and the fantastic, such as “The City of Speaking Stones,” where the city converses with its child in a mythical language, or “Grandmother’s Secret Food,” which makes the kitchen a tool for storytelling.

Travel literature here intersects with a broader mental map: no geographical boundaries, no restrictions on literary genre, but openness to experimentation. This approach also re-raises the question of the relationship between the Arab child and the world: How do we restore the child’s passion for discovery in the age of screens? How do we plant the love of adventure, travel, and wonder?

We are facing a new generation of writers who follow the path of great travelers but with a pen that respects today’s childhood, invests in its wonder, and offers stories that can reflect its multiple identities.