Egyptian children’s literature

The role of children's texts is to help acculturate children into society and to teach them to behave and believe in acceptable norms. The existence of children's literature as a genre has, to a large extent, depended on its function as a force of social manipulation, rather than on any concern with literary value. Egyptian children's literature is a product of the socialization of society and at certain turning points in Egyptian history stories have been politicized in order to comply with specific agendas. Egypt, the oldest cultural center of the Arab World, was the origin of modern Arabic children's literature. There are four types of hero found in Arabic children's literature: the archetypal or mythic hero, the religious, the romantic hero, and the national and historical hero. Many writers for children in the Arab world see spreading Islamic moral values as the main purpose of literature and express this in narratives whose protagonist is a religious hero.