Love, Sized for the World
By Gladys Matar كلاديس مطر

Another collection of short stories offered by Naufal Publishing House as a first in a series of books targeting middle school students, which was later adopted as required reading by the ministry of Education in Lebanon.

The introduction to this book and its enriching end-of-chapter quizzes testing the student’s comprehension were contributed by Antoine Toomey, PhD, one of Lebanon’s best education specialists.

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BOOK REVIEW

Excerpts from the introduction to the book by Antoine Tomeh, Ph.D.     

“This is the first in the Reading: Pleasure and Learning series for middle school students in Lebanon, published by Nofal-Beirut. 

…Not only should we encourage our kids to read, but we should also know what readings to recommend to them, show them how to approach their readings and that what they read shapes their sense of the world around them… That’s how we provide them with the best and most beneficial reading experience. 

With that sense of responsibility, the idea to create the Reading: Pleasure and Learning series came about when I was consulted about the new curricula. To advance the goals of the new curricula, both for pure language learning and for content, this series is designed to introduce our students to the works of our leading writers that are most suitable for their ages and interests. 

In addition to the works of classical Arab writers, there was a consensus to diversify the series by including the works of newer talents, such as Gladys Matar, and others, for their closeness to the student’s world in their senses, styles and subjects… 

The Reading: Pleasure and Learning series includes eight carefully selected short stories compiled from two of the short story collections by Gladys Matar: A young literary talent known for her broad and deep, cross-cultural education (Arabic-French-English), sharp judgment, and a pretty unique sense of femininity.   

In choosing the short stories, while making sure that the language was flawless, the style lively, and the form proper, we focused on what interests the middle school student, such as the element of excitement, without being superficial.  

The title of this series: Love Sized for the World, unfolds a different kind of love where personal interests are blended in with the larger community and human interests, hope with doubt, happiness with naughtiness, and quietude with eruption.   This love remains, through all of these ups and downs, the deepest dynamic of the human being in his longing to cross from the limited to the unlimited…”