Writer Kunaina Diab creative literary works explore the depth of children’s world  

Despite exceeding seventy-five years of age, childhood is still flourishing in the personality and writings of the writer Kunaina Diab, which she creatively embodied in dozens of collections of stories, articles and interactive workshops that develop children’s skills in writing, poetry, and drawing.  

Kunaina found in children’s literature a revelation of her tender and sincere feelings and creative potentials so that she chose to enter the children’s world and write for children. 

Kunaina explained that her work as a teacher and her translation of many subjects related to children, such as puppet theatre, helped her explore the depth of the children’s world and develop her writing talent, so she produced books and stories that she initially published in local and Arab newspapers and magazines such as Osama, Shama and Al Khaleej newspaper. 

Regarding her writing style, Kunaina explained that the late writer Hani Al Raheb was her godfather. When he read her writings while she was young, he told her that one day she would be a drama writer. 

She added that when she writes for children, she relies on instinct first, then on informing the children themselves about what she wrote to have their opinion, criticism and modification, pointing out that she respects their opinions and benefit from them despite their young age, which made her closer to children world and more interactive, harmonious and expressive in children literature, which needs accuracy and topics that fit and simulate children situation and their true feelings. 

She often asks children with whom she participate in workshops and activities to draw and embody the story they read, as they understand it on paper, which made them more affected and influential in writing.  In addition to that, she selects for children stories from the works of great Arab and Syrian writers. 

She thinks that children’s literature should not preserve the rosy character and describe the positive reality only, rather it should also portray negative reality and all the human issues that the children face in order to overcome the negatives and enhance the positives in the family and society. This type of literature also requires caution, honesty, and correct information from Educational aspect. 

She concluded that life is not measured by years but by continuous giving. Childhood lives within us, no matter how old we are.

Souha Suleiman