Every spring thousands of children’s publishers, authors, illustrators, translators and other professionals come together in the world’s most important children’s book fair in Bologna, Italy. During four hectic days Bologna is transformed into a children’s publishing mecca, where the industry comes together to meet, greet, buy and sell rights, see new global trends, inspire and be inspired.

We’re so excited to announce that we’ll be participating in this year’s fair as part of the Spanish stand. We’ve booked our tickets and one of the few hotel rooms left in Bologna, so now we’re just counting down until March 23rd when all the fun begins. If any of our readers will be attending the fair, we’d love to meet up and get to know you face to face. Just send us a note to info[at]bilingualreaders.com or stop buy our stand (Pavillion 29, B19)! We can’t wait to meet you there!

We had a great time this Saturday at the bilingual storytime and craft session at El Hada Trabalenguas. Our good friends Martha Pipkin and Philip Quarterman did a fabulous job of bringing the new adventures of Marina and the Little Green Boy: In the City alive, and kids and parents alike had a blast creating their own cities afterward. Here are a few pictures in case you missed it. Thanks again to Maísa and Vero for hosting the event!

In honor of Marina and the Little Green Boy: In the City, the second title in the Marina and the Little Green Boy series, this Saturday February 6th at 6:30 pm we’ll be holding a bilingual storytime and craft session at an adorable new children’s bookshop in Madrid called El Hada Trabalenguas. If you’ve never been there before (click to see a map), Saturday would be a great time to check it out with your kids and pick up your copy of both Marina and the Little Green Boy books. This activity is free for children aged 5 through 8, and all you have to do is call Maísa from the bookshop at 91 578 38 08 to reserve a spot. See you there!

image credit: fairground endpapers, via flickr

Today we’re proud to host January’s Blogging on Bilingualism Carnival. This is a great opportunity for readers to discover great articles on raising bilingual children from all over the world. We’ve received lots of fun and interesting submissions, so let the carnival begin!!!

Andrea from Mother Tongue Books is a woman after our own hearts, since she owns and operates an on-line bookshop which sells bilingual books. She has also recently started a blog to chronicle her own family’s adventures. In her first post, Money Where Your Mouth Is, Andrea candidly explains why she and her children are finally buckling down and learning Hungarian.

From our friends at Intrepidly Bilingual we received a great and aptly titled post called Sneaky Little Punks on how bilingual kids can use language to play parents against one another. Very funny stuff.

Maria at Fab Mums wrote a piece called Making Giant Leaps Toward Bilingualism about the importance of helping bilingual children get to know other bilingual children so that they don’t feel different or singled out. She also has several other great suggestions for reinforcing the minority language.

Our good friends at Spanglish Baby submitted an excellent article about the age old question: Is There Such a Thing as the Critical Period for Language Learning? Bilingualism expert Barbara Zurer Pearson weighs in on this subject with some encouraging words and straight forward advice for all those who are raising bilingual children.

In her post entitled Encouraging Multilingualism, Dominique talks about the importance of learning multiple languages in today’s global society and how she is taking steps to introduce a FOURTH language with her already trilingual children.

Lauren at Hobomama sent us a very interesting post called Monolingual Raising a Bilingual Baby, in which she opens up about why and how she and her husband made the decision to teach their children German even though neither parent is a native speaker of the language. She also wrote a great review of Naomi Steiner’s book, 7 Steps to Raising a Bilingual Child, which could be a great help to parents who are looking for answers.

Jan from Babelkid wrote an interesting post called A New Hybrid Language is Born about the phenomenon of bilingual children mixing their languages to form new hybrids.

In her post, Out of the Mouth of Cubling, Steffi from Mummy do that! talks about the funny things that come out of her daughter’s mouth both in German and English. She also talks about how remarkable her daughter’s language awareness is at just 32 months. Kids really are language learning machines!

So that’s it for this month’s carnival! We hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as we have, and we look forward to seeing you again either here at Bilingual Readers or at next month’s carnival, which will be hosted by SpanglishBaby.

Update:
We just noticed an unread message on twitter, so we’ve decided to include just one more last-minute post.

Eve at Blogging on Bilingualism wrote a great piece on how cultural celebrations do a great job of making the minority language relevant for bilingual children.

Just a short reminder that Bilingual Readers will be hosting January’s Blogging on Bilingualism Carnival, so please be sure to send your submissions to deanna@bilingualreaders.com today! Then you can tune in to our blog on Wednesday January 20th for a great collection of  posts from bloggers around the world on their experiences, concerns, words of wisdom or hilarious anecdotes about raising bilingual children. See you there!

image credit: float with carnival masks, via flickr

A few months ago we told you about a new initiative from Letizia at Bilingual for Fun in Italy, who came up with a great idea to help connect bilingual families and communities from all over the world: a Blogging on Bilingualism Carnival! The concept is actually quite simple, though the impact could be huge. Each month one bilingualism related blog hosts the carnival, in which bloggers from all over the world have the opportunity to share their experiences, concerns, words of wisdom or hilarious anecdotes about raising bilingual children. We’ve learned a great deal from the first two carnivals, which is why Bilingual Readers is proud to host the first Blogging on Bilingualism Carnival of 2010! The Carnival will take place on January 20th at www.bilingualreaders.com, so if you or anyone you know has a blog on bilingualism please feel free to send your (English or Spanish language) submissions to deanna[at]bilingualreaders.com on or before January 18th. We can’t wait to hear from you!

We just wanted to post a few pics of last weekend’s Bebés & Mamás fair in Madrid. There were times when we were overwhelmed by the sheer masses of people at our stand, but it was also a lot of fun. We had a great time meeting so many different families and hearing each of your individual stories. Thanks to all of you for making the fair a success!