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"You can always find the time to read if you put your mind to it." With these words, Fatima Al Bishr encouraged a group of fourth grade students to pick up reading as a hobby. The session was held as part of the Children's Activities at the Sharjah Children's Reading Festival.
During the session Fatima went through some of the reasons that children might give for not reading. One reason for instance is expressing that they don't like to read. "Give it a try, try to understand the benefit of reading and maybe try to find a subject that you're interested in," she told them.
Another reason might be not understanding what is being read. "It could be that you're not concentrating," she said. Through an exercise of Chinese whispers, Al Bishr showed them that reading links the author who could be in one country to the readers who are everywhere. "See? When you concentrate, the word that I spoke reached the end of the line. That's exactly the dynamic between author and reader," she told them.
Al Bishr stressed the importance of diversifying the reading topics. She also told them that when reading a story, they can enjoy it even more if they pretend to be characters in the story.
"Parents need to invest time and effort into making children connect with books," she said, adding that out of her personal experience, she found that her daughter really enjoys reading books in Arabic and that she repeatedly asks her to tell her stories.
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