Habiba

Writer | Photographer | Educator | Bio

Meet

My Arabic-speaking alter ego!

حَبيبة

Although she doesn’t speak Arabic as well as Bernadette would like, Habiba is always trying to learn more!

One of the things Habiba does to help her learn is to read story books in Arabic. There are many great children’s books available in Egypt, but Habiba finds them very hard to read. You see, all of these books are written in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), and Habiba is trying to learn Egyptian and Bedouin Arabic. There are many words used in MSA that are not used in these spoken dialects of Arabic, so while she may be able to decode (sound out) the words in the books, she has little idea what the words mean.

Because there is no standard written form for Egyptian or other Arabic dialects, there are no books for children written in these languages.

So Nadim, her Arabic tutor, suggested that Habiba write her own books! He knew it would be a fun way for Habiba to learn more about Egyptian Arabic. All Habiba had to do was use the Arabic alphabet to write the sounds of the Egyptian words. She had a lot of fun writing and illustrating her first little story and Nadim was right - she learned a lot - vocabulary, grammar, and spelling! Nadim now uses the book with many of his students and they have asked for more! Habiba is now working on writing her third book and has ideas for many more. She enjoys writing about things that she likes or knows a lot about, so you’ll probably see many titles about the nature, culture, and places of Egypt and south Sinai.

To help other beginning learners - and teachers - of Egyptian Arabic, Habiba has made these books FREE for everyone! Read more about the Creative Commons license, and what you can do with these books, here. Read feedback from users here.

You’ll find links to the books below. There are several versions of the stories, including eBooks and printable books, as well as bilingual (Egyptian Arabic - English) versions. The “Color Me” versions of the stories are illustrated with simple black-and-white outline drawings so that readers can color the pictures in their own printed books. Don’t try to print the eBooks; you won’t be able to. They are meant to be read on-screen. All you need is a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat or FoxIt. If you want to print the books, be sure to download the Printable Books. These should be printed double-sided, folded horizontally, and stapled. For detailed printing instructions, go here.

Habiba also has plans to write the stories in Bedouin Arabic and would love to see her books translated into other languages. There are children from all over the world living here in Egypt. Habiba thinks that these children may like to read and learn about Egypt in their own native language. If you’d like to volunteer your time and expertise to help Habiba translate these stories into another language, please email her at habiba@bernadettesimpson.com. She would really love to have them in Russian, German, and Italian.

NOTE: Depending on your browser settings, you may need to right-click on the links below and “Save file as” to save the PDF file to your computer.

Habiba Draws Dahab

حَبيبة ب تِرسِم دَهَب

eBooks (PDF)

Habiba Draws Dahab - Egyptian Arabic

Habiba Draws Dahab - Egyptian Arabic-English

Double-Sided Printable Books

Habiba Draws Dahab - Egyptian Arabic

Habiba Draws Dahab - Egyptian Arabic-English

Yum, Yum!

!هَمّ هَمّ

eBooks (PDF)

Yum, Yum! - Egyptian Arabic

Yum, Yum! - Egyptian Arabic-English

Double-Sided Printable Books

Yum, Yum! - Egyptian Arabic

Yum, Yum! - Egyptian Arabic-English

Double-Sided Printable “Color Me” Books

Yum, Yum! - Egyptian Arabic

Yum, Yum! - Egyptian Arabic-English

Inspired by the Alam Simsim book “Nimnim Draws the World”, Habiba decided to draw Dahab. Read along as she describes and draws some of her favorite places, animals, and people in Dahab.

Discover some of the animals that live in Egypt and what they like to eat. Camels, foxes, lizards, spiders, and more! Can you guess what the goat likes to eat?

The Flying Seed

البِذرة الطايرة

Follow the seed of the ‘ushaar plant (Dead Sea Apple Tree) as he jumps from his pod, flies through the village, and comes to rest in a nearby wadi, where - with the help of the sun and rain - he will complete his life cycle.

eBooks (PDF)

The Flying Seed - Egyptian Arabic

The Flying Seed - Egyptian Arabic-English

Double-Sided Printable Books

The Flying Seed - Egyptian Arabic

The Flying Seed - Egyptian Arabic-English

Double-Sided Printable “Color Me” Books

The Flying Seed - Egyptian Arabic

The Flying Seed - Egyptian Arabic-English