Syrian writer receives prize at Children’s literature competition in Egypt

“The Kingship’s Crown” is one of the stories that  writer Shadi Hallak invented in 2019 to tell it to his daughters at bedtime.

The story  talks about the crown of the king of the jungle which was stolen from the top of a rock, and how the giraffe was accused by the fox of stealing it because it is the tallest animal that could reach the rock. The giraffe’s footprints were seen at the rock and its tongue was wounded, so it was thought that its tongue was wounded by the crown while it was stealing it. The owl objected to their judgment and helped the giraffe to heal its wounds. After that the giraffe said that the fox asked it to carry the crown on its neck to smear the dust with its tail from the king’s crown, and when the fox stole it, it tried to cut the giraffe’s tongue so it chopped it away. Following the return of the crown to its place, an eagle took it and left the lion weak as it lost the crown. But a turtle advised the lion to return to its kingdom because kingship is not by wearing  the crown.

Hallak told Syria Times that this story was his first expedience in writing stories for children and it came in the 5th place in the “Diwan Al-Arab”  magazine’s children’s literature competition in 2023.

He has received several prizes for poetry and story at Arab and international levels in Egypt, Lebanon, Sweden, the U.S., Jordan and Syria for,  and he prepares programs for Iraqi Television channels and radio stations.

“ All the prizes that I have received are for the poems and stories I wrote between 2000 and 2002, except the new prize I got for my story the Domination’s Crown,” he clarified.

Hallak, who holds preparatory school certificate, has improved his Arabic language and writing skills through daily reading and writing, and he has encouraged his wife to write stories for children too.

Interviewed by: Basma Qaddour