Hello, everyone! I am Myra Garces-Bacsal, your guest curator for the month of March. I have been living here in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for (going on) five years now. Prior to moving to the UAE, my family and I lived in Singapore for eleven years, where I started my own website GatheringBooks.org (GB) which has been in existence since 2010. Hence, I will be referencing back and forth between GB and GLLI as I do this guest curation for the entire month.

I specifically chose the month of March for my guest-curation, mainly because March also happens to be UAE’s Reading Month, which started in 2017, in keeping with the 10-year National Plan for Reading launched in 2016, which was declared as the “Year of Reading” by the late His Highness (HH) Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, former President of the UAE, may his soul rest in peace.

For those who may not be aware, the United Arab Emirates is an incredibly diverse country made up of seven emirates: Abu Dhabi (capital), Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah. It is a fairly young country established by HH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan in 1971 – it just celebrated its 53 years last December 2023.

The country is estimated to have a population of 10.24 million according to Global Media Insight (GMI) as of 2024. When I say that the country is ‘incredibly diverse’, this is backed up by its demographic composition as can be seen below (source: GMI) with the Emiratis making up 11.48% of the population (approximately 1.18 million) and the expatriates the remaining 88.52% (around 9 million):

Hence, the curation that my team and I are doing for #UAEReads would also be reflective of this diverse demographic population – with literature coming from the major nationalities comprising the entire country: Emiratis, Pakistanis, Indians, Filipinos, Egyptians – and other nationalities (which also make up 38.55% of the country’s population as can be seen in the image above). Thus #UAEReads would comprise of #EmiratiLit, #PakistaniLit, #IndianLit, #EgyptianLit, #PhilippineLit among others.

This curation is, by no means, exhaustive. Nor does it claim to include ALL the major works being offered here in this vibrant country. However, we have done our level best to showcase the books that managed to find us while preparing this curation, with an eye towards providing a range of diverse titles we have managed to read (from contemporary to celebrated ones). We are also including some posts related to literacy, love of reading, and libraries in this month-long feature of #UAEReads.

We hope to do UAE’s National Reading Month justice by surfacing the essence of the country: inclusivity and belonging – which has made me proud to call it the country that has adopted us as one of its own. Do join us throughout this entire month as we celebrate the joy of reading here in the United Arab Emirates with #UAEReads.

If you feel that we have missed out on a few titles that you believe we should know about, please do share them in the Comments section, and I will do my best to feature your recommendations at GatheringBooks where our year-long theme is: #ReadYourWayHome2024.

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About the Guest Editor/Curator for March 2024 [#UAEReads]:

Myra Garces-Bacsal has served as a teacher educator for 15 years and has led several research projects on reading and social emotional learning, diverse picture books and teacher practices, psychology of high creatives and exceptional people, culturally responsive and inclusive education. She is a quintessential lover and creator of booklists (see her Social and Emotional Learning bookshelf here and other publications below). Myra serves as the Assistant Dean for Research and Graduate Studies with the College of Education, UAE University. She is a self-proclaimed nerd who lives and breathes books and enjoys organizing events and festivals where fellow nerds converge and attempt to joyfully change the world.

Publications on booklists:

Garces-Bacsal, R. M., Alhosani, N. M., Elhoweris, H., Tupas, R. (2023). A diverse social and emotional learning booklist for gifted learners and advanced readers. Roeper Review, 45(1), 25-36. https://doi.org/10.1080/02783193.2022.2145397

Garces-Bacsal, R. M., Alhosani, N. M., Elhoweris, H., Al Ghufli, H. T., AlOwais, N. M., Baja, E. S., & Tupas, R. (2022). Using diverse picturebooks for inclusive practices and transformative pedagogies. In M. Efstratopoulou (Ed.), Rethinking Inclusion and Transformation in Special Education (pp. 72-92). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-4680-5.ch005

Garces-Bacsal, R. M. (2021). Of grit and gumption, sass and verve: What gifted students can learn from multicultural picture book biographies. In S. R. Smith’s Handbook of giftedness and talent development in Australasian Pacific (pp. 431-453). Singapore: Springer International Handbooks of Education. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-981-13-3041-4_18

Garces-Bacsal, R. M. (2020). Diverse books for diverse children: Building an early childhood diverse booklist for social and emotional learning. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 22(1), 66-95. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798420901856