Al Ghoul

Taghreed Najjar is a pioneer of modern children's literature in Jordan. A graduate of the American University of Beirut, Taghreed started her career as a teacher before becoming a full time writer of picture books and young adult novels. Her YA novels have been celebrated widely by her readers and various schools in the region have adopted them as part of their curriculum. A number of her books have won awards while others have been translated into foreign languages like English, Swedish, Turkish, French and Chinese.
One of her most critically acclaimed works is a series of ten picture books revolving around six-year old Jude and her family and friends.'The Halazone Series', deals with everyday childhood issues which are treated with humor and deftness by the author. One of Taghreed’s pet projects was collecting old Arabic children rhymes and publishing them in book and digital form to make them accessible to the modern child and family. She published two collections of rhymes, the latest entitled 'Musical Tickles' was selected by the National Centre for Children's Literature (a service of the French National Library) as one of the best publications in the Arab World in 2012/2013.

Taghreed is a member of the Jordanian Writer’s Association and takes part in international and regional conferences and workshops that deal with children literature.

About the Illustrator

Hassan completed his studies in applied arts, emphasis on interior design from the University of Balqa’ in Jordan. He also studied fine arts with emphasis on oil painting and took a course in sculpture at the Jordanian National Institute of Arts. He graduated in 2000, and held his first exhibition “Urban Mood” in 2006. He started illustrating for local magazines in 2003. Later on he moved to animation, specifically animation for children. He contributed to the production of an animated series “Pink Panther and Pals” produced by “Rubicon & MGM”. He also illustrated some episodes for a famous children series “Driver Dan’s Story Train” produced by “A Productions Ltd. & BBC”. Hassan illustrated a number of children books published by local and regional publishing houses.