Who we are?

Hadi Badi is an initiative that aims to promote children’s and young adult literature and creative learning in Arabic worldwide. Launched in January 2019, Hadi Badi evolved organically from the interest and engagement of its founders in Arabic children’s literature.

We are three Egyptian women passionate about Arabic language, literature, and creative learning:

Hend Badawy, Play Therapist and Child Psychiatrist

Miranda Beshara, Author, Editor, and Translator

Raneem Hassan, Child Psychiatrist

What we do?

Hadi Badi addresses the needs of the demand side (parents, educators, and children) to learn more about quality Arabic books available on the market and to have the opportunity to participate in creative and engaging activities around the Arabic language and culture; and of the supply side (authors, illustrators, publishers, artists, and cultural organizations) to gain better exposure to their work and better engage with their target audience.

We work inside and outside the Arab World with a multitude of partners to maximise impact.

Hadi Badi also provides translation, editing, idea development, and literary mediation services to interested parties.

Why we do it?

Hadi Badi is trying to bridge the awareness gap about good Arabic children and young adult books. In addition to book reviews, we provide book recommendations for specific age groups and around key topics, we contribute articles and opinion pieces, and we interview key stakeholders in the children literature sector.

We also highlight creative initiatives and projects from inside and outside the Arab World and help spread the word about different awards and competitions related to Arabic children’s and young adult literature.

Six months into our initiative, we realised that we needed to go beyond book reviews in order to make any impact and to change behaviour. We therefore decided to bridge the creative learning gap and we piloted some activities in partnership with various entities in Egypt and abroad.