And It Became an Online Bookshop

It was not intended that arabest-online would become a bookshop. I worked day and night for months with a specific idea of certain products in my head that I wanted to market and sell. But then something unexpected happened that changed everything...

The night that turned everything upside down

It was around 1am when I woke up to loud and strange noises. I already guessed who could be behind it and I was proven right. It was my then 20-month-old daughter. In her pink and white sleeping bag she was sneaking through our apartment towards the living room, of course all the lights were on. I tiptoed after her to see what she was up to. And there she was standing in front of one of our bookshelves holding neither a toy nor a tablet, she was holding a beautifully illustrated German children's book in her hands. I proudly took her in my arms and read the book to her and then put her back to bed.

Although I am happy that my child adores books so much, I found it unfortunate that she never chose one of the Arabic children's books and that needed to be changed...

Children should grow up knowing their roots

Like many parents, it is important to me to familiarize my child with our culture and language, I myself was born and raised in Germany, I was, unlike my daughter, through our annual trip to Syria in constant contact with our homeland, culture and family. Due to the wars and the situation in the Middle East, it has become difficult to travel regularly to our home country.
Therefore I started searching for Arabic children's books and ended up having the same experience as many Arab families, not only that it was difficult to find some books in Germany and Europe, but also that most of the available ones were not of high quality and could simply not keep up with the beautifully designed German children's books that lured my daughter out of bed at midnight.
How was I supposed to make her familiar with the Arabic language and culture with such books, that she didn't even want to take a look at?

Children should grow up surrounded by books

Through my voluntary work in the field of integration, I have noticed that parents with still poor language skills understandably rarely buy children's books for their children, because they are unable to read them to their kids. Children's books have a positive effect on the development of a child in many ways and are so much fun and joy! That's why it's important for children to develop a love for books at an early age.

Arabest the online bookshop

With these two goals in mind, I abandoned my original plans and contacted several Arabic publishers and finally found what I was looking for.
I founded arabest-online with the aim of constantly expanding the selection of Arabic high quality and well designed and illustrated children's books and learning materials in Germany and Europe and to offer parents a user friendly online store with a unique service.
What I am particularly proud of is that a large percentage of the books in my store are from publishing houses run by women and mothers or written and illustrated by them.