Turning the page…
Mum, what is this project?
How does a parent explain consent, corruption or cruelty to animals to their child, when the child meets all of it every day and no book helps?
That is the question we started from. Children growing up in Tunisia over the past fifteen years see things the adults around them cannot put into words. They see them from the front row, often while their parents look on, powerless.
The founder, Raja Sabta El Amri, is Swiss of Tunisian origin and grew up between two very different school systems. Her academic work is on Tunisian state education. This project is that work made concrete: rather than wait for a reform, build the tool that parents and teachers are missing.
On 1 March 2026 the project became a publishing house in its own right. The first titles had been published by a partner. From now on we publish ourselves, and that changes everything about the editorial line, the formats and the schedule.
What sets us apart
How the books in the collection are made
Every book opens with a reading guide written with a child psychiatrist. It helps parents understand what the story is dealing with: the difficult words defined, how they may land with a child, the recommended age, and advice for reading together and opening the conversation.
At the heart of every book is a story balanced between recognition and unlearning. Children see themselves in the characters, the landscapes, the traditions and the everyday life of Tunisia and Africa, while meeting models that widen their view. Each story is set in a different Tunisian governorate, so that the richness of our regions comes through.
After the story, an activity lets the child come back to what they have just read, test what they understood and think the themes through. It also helps parents spot what their child has grasped, what they are still asking, and how they reacted. These activities are designed with a child psychiatrist.
Every book ends with a short list of useful resources on its theme: associations, public bodies and international organisations working on the subject. A way of turning the reading into a starting point.
The books reach readers two ways: ordinary retail, and a network of associations and institutions that carries them where they would never be bought. It is the second channel that gives the first its meaning.
Are you a bookshop, a distributor, a school or a public institution that would like to carry our books? Write to us.
Dad, who works on this project?
Public administration project manager, currently writing a doctorate on the school system, with a degree in public policy and management. Author of the collection and founder of the publishing house.
Doctor in child psychiatry and psychotherapy, member of the Tunisian Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Checks that the images and the content of every title hold up scientifically.
Consultant on strategy and on growing the project abroad.
In charge of communications strategy, press relations and media.
Designs and produces the project’s photography and video.
Builds and maintains the site, the shop and the infrastructure.
Accompagnement technique du projet.
They stand beside us and, each in their own field, help the project grow and come alive.
Mum, when did it start?
ArthéphagePartner bookshop
ScienciàCorporate partner
NouvelairCorporate partner, Dis maman, dis papa flights
MOOMMedia and distribution partner
DargaudSwiss distribution partner
CulturelDistributor
FnacDistributor
Al KitabPartner bookshop
AfNThe project’s first partner2011
The founder is in Tunisia when the Revolution breaks out. She watches the upheaval the country goes through and the deep changes it brings. That period sets her thinking about education, about the part it plays in a country’s development, and about how it can help build the society of tomorrow.
2022
She starts writing a first book: “Mum, Dad, what is consent?”. The first steps become real through meeting Cyrine Bettaleb Ali, the first member of the team, who introduces her to Artforness and its founder Ines Baccouche. Other meetings follow: Malek Jerbi, the project’s illustrator, and Pop Libris, the publisher who will bring out the first book.
July 2024
The first workshop takes place at the Al Kitab bookshop, around one essential question: “Questioning to grow up”. It is the beginning of a long run of workshops on consent, diversity and children’s critical thinking.
August 2024
The project takes its first steps in the media with an article in L’Instant M. That first piece opens the way to a long series of conversations about the causes we stand for.
September 2024
Before it is even published, the first book goes through a full-scale beta test. Children, parents, education and mental health professionals read it, question it, criticise it. Their feedback sharpens the content before printing. The beta test has been part of our method ever since.
April 2025
After two years of work, research and testing, “Mum, Dad, what is consent?” is officially launched at the Tunis International Book Fair, in Le Kram. The welcome is extraordinary.
November 2025
The first edition of our “Innovating for tomorrow” forum: a day built as an ecosystem where knowledge, practice and experience meet to rethink education and contribute to Tunisia’s development. Civil society, researchers, teachers, parents and minority representatives think about the future together.
April 2026en cours
One book became a collection, then workshops, meetings and a community. The publishing house now has its own editorial line and the ambition to make room for authors committed to education, development and inclusion.
August 2026la suite
Official launch of our books in Switzerland. Now available in fifteen stockists, our books cross borders to meet new families and new places.
