A traveling caravan is on a mission to make children fall in love with books

The Emirates Literature Foundation’s Reading for Pleasure caravan just wrapped its third conference — four days rolling between Dubai, Al Ain and Abu Dhabi, drawing about 120 speakers and more than 2,000 parents, teachers and librarians. The sessions explored how reading shapes children’s learning, wellbeing and imagination, including new brain research on how young minds read. It is part of a five-year pilot, running since 2023 with six Dubai schools, to get children reading for joy in Arabic and English — no tests, no pressure. As founder Isobel Abulhoul puts it: put a book in a child’s hands and let them discover the joy of reading.