Children’s stories in the Arabic your family actually speaks

Most Arabic children’s books are in Modern Standard Arabic, the Arabic of school and the news. Bedtime at home sounds different. Alf Layla writes each book in the Arabic you choose, so the story sounds like your family.

Make your child’s book $2.50 for 10 pages. You only pay for a finished book.

Five kinds of Arabic

“I don’t want to go to sleep now!”, in each Arabic we write:

Pick one for each book, and the whole story is told in it: the words, the way people talk to each other, the little phrases a family uses at bedtime.

Gulf Arabic (خليجي)

Gulf Arabic is the dialect we test first. Our sample book, made for 17-month-old Layla, rhymes in Gulf Arabic and in English. You can read all of it on our sample book page.

Modern Standard Arabic, with vowel marks

Modern Standard Arabic (فصحى) comes with vowel marks (تشكيل) for children under eight, so a new reader can sound out every word. Turn them on or off while you read. Vowel marks are added after the story is written and never change its letters.

How the dialect stays a dialect

The story is written by a writer told to be a native author of the dialect, not a translator, with examples of how that dialect really sounds and the formal words to avoid. A second pass checks the whole book for words that slipped into Modern Standard Arabic or another dialect.

How it works

  1. Tell us about your child: their name and age, the Arabic you speak at home, and what the story is about, in English or in Arabic.
  2. We write it for their age, in your Arabic, with English on every page. You can start reading while the pictures are painted.
  3. We paint every page in the style you chose, with your child drawn the same way on every page.
  4. Read it together on a phone, a tablet or the TV, or print the PDF. Change any picture or line you like.

Questions parents ask

Can I change the dialect after the book is made?
Each book is written in one dialect from the start. To read the same idea in another dialect, make a new book with that dialect chosen.
Is there Iraqi or Sudanese Arabic?
Not yet. Today the choices are Modern Standard Arabic, Gulf, Levantine, Egyptian and Moroccan.
How old should my child be?
Any age from a few months to 12. A book for a baby has a few gentle words on each page; a book for an eight-year-old reads like a real adventure.
What does it cost?
$2.50 for a 10-page book and $4.50 for a 20-page book. Your card is charged only once your book is finished, so if it can’t be made you pay nothing. There is no subscription, and changing pictures and words afterwards is included.

$2.50 for 10 pages. You only pay for a finished book.

Make your child’s book