“What could this cow be doing? It must be looking for grass. If it fails to find it, it will suffer from thirst and it will not give us milk.”

The following night, he looked up at the ceiling and saw a puzzled bird hovering over a mulberry tree. “Come on, generous tree. Feed the hungry bird,” Karim said.

“What is this man up to? I guess I have recognized him. He’s here to steal the farm.” Karim alerted the dog to the looming threat, eliciting from the animal a bark that scared the thief away.

“Look at that dark grey cloud billowing across the sky. It is going to rain.”

Karim spent his nights reading the ceiling until one night, as he was lying down on his bed, his searching eyes couldn’t find the grey cloud, nor the bird, nor mulberry tree and the cow. His father had repainted the ceiling. It was then when Karim started writing about his ceiling characters.

Ceiling Creatures targets 7 to 9 year-olds. It aims at activating their imagination to help them derive ideas from shapes and forms and employ them to understand everyday matters.
By Nabiha Mheidly. Illustrations by Hassan Zahreddine. Published in its first edition by Dar Al-Hadaek in 2011.