TEHRAN – Several Arab publishing houses have purchased rights to ten books published by Iran’s Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA).

The publishers are from Syria and Lebanon, the Tamass Literary Agency announced on Tuesday in a press release, which did not refer to the names of the publishing houses.

The agency was found in 2014 in Tehran to implement a new way of selling the rights of Persian books to overseas publishers.

“One Jungle and Some Animals?” by Nora Haqparast is one of the books. It is about a lion that arrives in a jungle and decides to seize there.

“Dinner Got Cold Kooti Kooti”, “Don’t Catch Cold Kooti Kooti” and “Shake the World Kooti Kooti” from Farhad Hassanzadeh’s Kooti Kootis story series are also among the books. 

Hassanzadeh has received nominations for international awards, including the Hans Christian Andersen Award. “Hasti”, “Call Me Ziba” and several other books by the writer have been translated into several languages.

Rights to six books by Tehran-based French writer and illustrator Claire Jobert have also been sold. 

The books are “In Search of God”, “God’s Cookies”, “Goodbye, Old Raccoon”, “The Little Mouse’s Prayer”, “The Stories of the Little Green Lizard” and “The Most Trustworthy Friend”.

Jobert was born in Paris in May 1961. She was brought up in a Christian family. She converted to Islam at the age of nineteen and immigrated to Iran when she got married.

She illustrates her stories herself. With a cursory look at her works, one can easily perceive her preoccupation with issues such as faith and religion, identity, children’s relations with their surroundings, etc. Most of the writer’s works are for primary-age children.

She is also interested in doing research on children’s literature and philosophy for children. She writes both in Persian and French and has published some French books in Lebanon and France, but her preference is to write in Persian.

The Tamass Literary Agency also said that a number of publishers from other Arab countries, including Iraq and Jordan, are currently negotiating to purchase rights to books from the IIDCYA.  

Photo: Front covers of three IIDCYA books, which will be published in Arabic in Lebanon and Syria.    

MMS/YAW