Creatures of the Ceiling of the Room

Winner of Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature

Publisher: Dar al-Hadaeq (Lebanon)

Author: Nabihah Muhaydali

Illustrator: Hassan Zahreddine

Number of Pages: 40

Age Group: +6

Karim and his family live in a not-so-comfortable house. Every night before sleep, Karim looks at the damp patches at the ceiling of his bedroom and finds some meaningful shapes among them. He makes different stories for these shapes. One night he sees a bird that wants berries, so he put this bird on the mulberry tree. The tree and the bird are both happy, and the tree promises to give Karim berries. Tomorrow morning his father comes home with some berries.

Karim makes a story every night, and the next morning he can see the effect of his story in real life. One night when he looks at the ceiling, he sees that it is white and clean. His father has painted it. He can’t see those shapes and falls asleep as he is sad. But this is not the end of the story. There are still other ways to play with imaginary shapes and make new stories.