Maria Dadouch is a children’s author and screenwriter based between the United States and Syria, who has published over 50 books in the Arab world and the USA. She is the winner of the 2022 Sheik Zayed Book Award for Children’s Literature for her book “The Mystery of the Glass Ball,” which tells the story of a young boy who goes on a train journey through the desert with his grandfather and encounters a variety of curiosities that give him a greater appreciation of the gifts of his unique world. In this conversation with PW international editor Ed Nawotka, Dadouch discusses the book, the impact the Sheik Zayed Book Award has had on her career, the differing traditions between Arabic children’s literature and that of Europe and North America, her recommendations for those first being introduced to Arabic children’s books, and much more.