On the Way to School

Bassam Taji was born in 1967. He spent most of his childhood in Kuwait. In school, he distinguished himself in art and loved to invent things. As a child, he dreamt of building and piloting a flying machine. He loved to make up stories to tell neighborhood children making them heroes of the stories he told. He studied and lived in Hungary but came back to settle in Jordan after 23 years. A few years back an old childhood neighbor called him and said, “In the stories, you told us, I was always the deep-sea diver, explorer in your stories. I wanted you to know that thanks to your inspirational stories, I have now become a diver and have participated in discovering a pharaonic city under the sea… Thank you.” Two years ago, Bassam started writing children's stories as a hobby and realized a side of himself he had not known before.

About the Illustrator

Sasha Haddad is a Lebanese illustrator who has been working professionally since she graduated from the Cambridge School of Arts in 2014. She is the illustrator of more than fifteen children’s books. She created logos for various brands and restaurants in Lebanon and the Arab region. She had her first solo exhibition in October 2019.