Looking for a unique way to expose your children to three vital languages and explore the customs of the UAE at the same time? Then you’ll want to check out the latest in the Noura’s World series of children’s books.

Created by co-authors Katie Butterfield and Khadijah Kudsi and designer/illustrator Ruth Burrows, the Noura books centre around a young Emirati girl who lives in Abu Dhabi. These unique books published by Universal Publishing and Distributors take children of all ages on a journey that celebrates the culture and heritage of the UAE while teaching reading and language skills in a fun, colourful way.

The tri-lingual difference

Told from the perspective of five-year-old Noura and her family and friends, these books deliver each story in three languages at the same time – those who read in English will follow the boxes with yellow backgrounds and look for Barnaby the Bee, those reading in Arabic will look for the green boxes alongside Farah the Butterfly and French readers will be guided by Eric the Snail and the blue boxes.

Learning with Noura

Parents looking to reinforce these prolific languages with their children will find a wealth of resources on Noura’s website, www.mynourabooks.com. Flash cards, colouring pages and worksheets can help kids make connections with the languages in Noura’s stories.

Teachers can also book a Noura’s World workshop, during which students will get involved in activities ranging from singing and games to making their own books. The Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) helped support the first book, Noura’s Garden, by including it as part of their Sayfuna Mumayaz summer reading programme and plan to make use of the series again in their 2011 summer programme. To find out more about booking a workshop for your students, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The science behind the stories

Noura’s stories may seem simple, but a lot of work has gone into making them effective learning tools. “We’ve done a lot of research and our books are designed to appeal to learners on the kinaesthetic, audio and visual learning styles,” says co-author Katie Butterfield. “Also Percy the cat hides on every page of our narrative books, so even very small children can be involved with the stories by simply looking for Percy.”

In addition to the language angle, these books are a great way for expatriate children to learn about their host culture and for Emirati children to identify with their own heritage. These hugely popular books made a big hit at the recent Sharjah and Al Ain Book Fairs, and will appear again at this year’s Abu Dhabi International Book Fair 15th – 20th March, 2011. The Noura’s World series is also available for in-school book fairs.

Noura's World online
Find out more about Noura and her world online. Keep up with the latest in Noura's world on her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/Nouras-World, give her a tweet at www.twitter.com/nourasworld or follow her blog at www.nourasworld.wordpress.com.

The Noura’s World Series

Check out the entire line of books about Noura and her family, available at all Magrudy’s and Bookworm stores in the UAE and online at www.souq.com.

Noura’s Garden – Noura visits a different park in Abu Dhabi each day of the week with a different member of her family

Football Fun – Noura’s brother Hamad has a great time staying fit and having fun playing football with his friends and family

Noura’s Museum –
Noura visits the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization and learns vital facts about her heritage

Noura’s Numbers – Noura counts objects of interest in UAE culture from one to ten using bright colours and an easy-to-follow number line

Noura’s Colours –
Meet Noura’s family and learn all the colours of the rainbow in three languages

Noura’s Shapes – Play a fun, simple game with Noura that reinforces the most important shapes children see every day in the UAE

Laura Fulton