The UAE Board on Books for Young People (UAEBBY) surprised shoppers at Mall of the Emirates on Monday, June 1st, with a flash mob organised to promote its Read.Dream.Create campaign and upcoming summer activities, as well as International Children’s Day, which falls on the same date. The fifty young participants, whose ages ranged from 7 to 12, clutched their favourite books as they danced to a specially produced soundtrack for UAEBBY’s two-year-old initiative that encourages reading among youth and helps develop their creative writing capabilities.

Performed three times throughout the evening from 7pm to just after 9pm, the lively dance routine began with a sole, young boy reading a book in the middle of the mall’s Central Galleria; he was then joined by a number of his peers until all fifty children danced energetically in unison to the music for an enthusiastic audience that included local celebrities, proud parents and passersby.

International Children’s Day, declared as June 1st by the World Conference for the well-being of Children in Geneva, Switzerland in 1925, is observed yearly to highlight and address children’s issues, one of which is child literacy and the importance of reading. The Read.Dream.Create campaign was created to inspire a love of reading in local youth, and encourage adults to read to children both at school and at home. The initiative, which provides workshops and reading sessions for children across the UAE, aims to inspire children to tap into their imaginations and enjoy all forms of communication and expression such as reading, writing and illustration.

Speaking on the Read.Dream.Create campaign and Monday’s performance, Marwa Al Aqroubi, President of the UAEBBY, said, “Books have the extraordinary power to benefit children in many ways: as a parent, reading with your child is vital in regards to preparing him or her for educational success and interactive reading sessions that assist in the development of social and critical thinking skills among youth, while enhancing familial bonds. The flash mob performance at Mall of the Emirates demonstrated the importance of reading by showing the audience how fun and exciting books can be and the way they can bring children and families together.”