Thirty Poems for Children

With vivid imagery and an appealing use of Arabic meters and rhymes, the poems in this book explore nature, family, school, play, and boundless world of the imagination. The diverse themes and sounds in Thirty Poems for Children cultivate cognitive and contemplative senses along with unique layout and drawings of the book. The 30 poems deliver an important educational message in simple, yet captivating language, and prompt children to think creatively through the senses and the imagination.

Jawdat Fakhreddine is an award-winning Lebanese poet and professor emeritus of Arabic literature at the Lebanese University in Beirut. He was born in 1953 in a small village in southern Lebanon and is currently based in Beirut. He has published eleven poetry collections, two works of literary criticism, and three books of poetry for children. His books have been translated to English, French and German.

Huda J. Fakhreddine is Associate Professor of Arabic literature at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. She is the author of Metapoesis in the Arabic Tradition (Brill, 2015) and The Arabic Prose Poem: Poetic Theory and Practice (Edinburgh University Press, 2021). Her previous translations from Arabic to English include Lighthouse for the Drowning (co-translated with Jayson Iwen) published by BOA Editions, The Sky That Denied Me: Selected Poems by Jawdat Fakhreddine (co-translated with Roger Allen) published by University of Texas Press and Come Take a Gentle Stab: Selected Poems by Salim Barakat (co-translated with Jayson Iwen) published by Seagull Books. Her translations of modern Arabic poems have appeared in Banipal, World Literature Today, Nimrod, ArabLit Quarterly and Middle Eastern Literatures. She lives in Philadelphia, USA.