A Story About Accepting Differences
A little butterfly is determined to reach the end of the rainbow, where she believes a gift is waiting for her.
The little butterfly flies a long distance. Whenever she feels tired, she takes a short rest before continuing her journey.
When she finally reaches her destination, she discovers that the gift she had imagined was nothing more than an illusion.
As she tries to make her way back, the rainbow takes pity on her and calls out to speak with her.
A beautiful and unusual friendship develops between them, the kind of friendship that can only exist between two beings from entirely different worlds.
The story is intended for children aged five to eight.
Author: Sama Shuwaikh
Illustrations: Ali al-Zaini
German translation: Obeid Alyousef
The story was originally written in Arabic and later translated into German. The aim was both to support the integration of refugees into their host society and to promote Arabic-language literature in Germany.
Sama talks about how she learned to read and write Arabic despite not having received schooling in her country of origin:
"I learned Arabic thanks to my mother and father. My mother is not only a children's story writer but also an Arabic teacher.
She taught me regularly, so I didn't find learning difficult.
My father helped her too. He teaches Arabic to Arab children as a volunteer at the cultural centre in our city.
My parents also bought us lots of Arabic books to read."
Speaking about how she began writing children's stories, Sama says:
"I started writing stories when I was six years old.
My mother used to organise short story writing workshops for us. We would come up with an idea and develop it together.
That's how we gradually came to love reading and writing stories."
The book was published by Khotoat, with joint funding from Miso and the author's family.
It was distributed in Germany to children of different nationalities.
