About the story
Karim’s head is full of amazing inventions, but his pencil is stubborn: the letters go up and down, his hand hurts, and he erases until the paper tears. With hand warm-ups, a thick triangle pencil, paper with colored lines and a teacher who lets him draw and tell his ideas first, Karim learns how to make friends with the pencil. And on Little Inventors Day, his plant-watering robot steals the show.
This is the fifth book in our Different Heroes series, where every hero is a child who learns in a different way. Maryam and Omar are back too.
Who it’s for
- Children aged 5–8
- Children with big ideas who find handwriting slow, tiring or painful, including children with dysgraphia, and their brothers, sisters and classmates
- Parents and teachers who want to support writing in a kind, hands-on way
Reading it together
- Stop and ask: “Why was Karim sad after the writing lesson?”
- Warm up your hands together like Karim: squeeze clay, play the spider game, pick things up with clothespins.
- Ask your child to draw an invention, tell you about it, then write just the most important words.
- The PDF also includes tips for parents and teachers and a “Warm Up and Write” activity with colored lines.
Written by Sara Ali Ahmed, special-education teacher, and Mohamed Thabet Ahmed.
