The Impact of the Translated World Literature on Arab Children

Abstract

Children's literature is one of the creative paths in which children discover the world, and it plays an influential role in shaping the thinking process and perception. Hence, the type and content of the Arabic or translated stories that are given to a child is important, for their impact on a child’s personality, values, and style of thinking. The history of international children's literature is full of ideas, stories and famous characters that have attracted the attention of children all over the world. With the translation movement in this field, these books have become a vector of knowledge about another world that has its own customs, traditions, values, and culture, as well as models of personalities that may be good or have a negative impact. The interest of the Arab child in the translated stories has raised our attention and prompted us to present this proposal to study the most important pros and cons of the translated foreign literature for the Arab child. This study consists of two parts: the first part is theoretical, presenting some negative and positive examples of translated international literature presented to the Arab child, and the second part is practical, which begins with a questionnaire to know the child's reading tendencies from translated books, followed by four reading workshops in which the children participated with their opinions, discussions, and creativity.