Doha: Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press (HBKU Press) has recently published several collections of fiction and nonfiction series for both children and adults in an effort to further engage readers of all ages.
As studies show the multiple benefits for choosing to read related materials, HBKU Press aims to provide quality content to support this claim.
“Part of encouraging literacy amongst adults and children includes constantly learning about best practices that work towards this goal. Recent academic research has shown the benefits of book series in encouraging reading habits, so naturally, HBKU Press sees this as a way to engage our audiences by publishing related materials that keep readers coming back for more,” said Souha Abu Chakra, Senior Editor at HBKU Press.
Book series are groups or sequences of reading materials that are formally identified together as a group because they have certain characteristics in common. Book series can be organised in different ways, such as written by the same author, covering the same theme, or following the same set of characters.
Just in time for the new school year, award-winning HBKU Press author Basma Elkhatib has developed a series that teaches Arabic grammar in five useful books. In the Karim and Hanan Are Learning series, readers join twin siblings as they explore their world in simplified Arabic. In each book, they learn parts of speech and the mechanics of Arabic grammar while enriching their vocabulary in an entertaining and enlightening way.
In another series by Elkhatib, the My Smart Family series, readers follow the main characters — siblings Noora and Youssef — as they face many different problems in the two books from the series that have already been published in Arabic, A Night Without Internet (2018) and The Strawberry Doesn’t Sprout Red (2019). And as the characters grow and learn, so too do the readers.
The latest in a series of four nonfiction books published in Arabic by HBKU Press is entitled Discover and Learn. Consisting of The Science of an Egg, The Science of a Lemon, The Science of Water, and The Science of Paper, the series makes up a wonderful collection of books perfect for budding young scientists everywhere. These books include ten fun and easy experiments that explore basic scientific principles using everyday items.
“These books make science more accessible to our readers by relating complex concepts to simple items found in their daily environment. The benefit of doing this is that it makes the content more applicable and therefore encourages children to understand, learn and engage. And once they’re engaged and actively learning from one book, they’re more likely to want to explore the rest of the books in the series as well,” said Abou Chakra.
The concept of connection and engagement can also be applied to the Mind Zone series of books, now fully published by HBKU Press. This nonfiction book series for adults, translated into Arabic from the English books previously published by Scientific American, is a collection of five books that offer brain training exercises as a natural, effective, and fun way to improve mental activity and cognitive processing.
