books

After a much needed holiday, the Little Green Boy is back for his next adventure! Today the second title in the Marina and the Little Green Boy series, In the City, is finally available both on our website and in bookshops throughout Spain. This time the Little Green Boy makes his way into the city to discover the many thrilling experiences urban life on planet Earth has to offer. Buses, motorcycles, street lights, Papa’s factory, swings…and even a policeman! There are so many surprises waiting for the Little Green Boy in the city!

Marina and the Little Green Boy: In the City is the second title in a bilingual series about two friends from different cultures who, believe it or not, have a lot to learn from one another.

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About a month ago we spent a week explaining to our readers why we decided to embark on this crazy journey of starting a bilingual publishing company. We spent much of the Making of Bilingual Readers Week talking about how we came up with the idea for each one of our launch products and why we think they’ll be useful for bilingual families, libraries and classrooms alike. We posted about how children’s books are made to give you  insight into the complex world of children’s book publishing and explain how an intangible idea can be turned into a really cool physical book. We received such a positive response from those posts that we decided to make the “Making of” a regular feature for all new books in our catalogue. So welcome to The Making of Marina and the Little Green Boy/Marina y el niño verde!!!

Many of you know that our first bilingual picture book, Marina and the Little Green Boy/Marina y el niño verde, will be making its way onto the shelves of bookstores all over Spain  this week. This fun little book is the first title in a series about a little girl named Marina who becomes friends with an alien boy who appears in her attic one night. The little green boy knows nothing of Marina’s world so she gets to teach him all about his new home. Yet Marina and her family will also learn a lot from the little green boy in the process.

Picture books are a staple of most children’s book publishers and Bilingual Readers is no exception. This traditional format is a great way of showcasing the classic formula: a well told story + awesome illustrations = an amazing kid’s book. But, like usual, what on the surface appears to be a simple, clear cut and easy to make product is actually the fruit of a lot of hard work and planning involving a team of authors, illustrators, editors and graphic designers.

Like all children’s books, the Marina series started with a fairly simple idea. When we envisioned our first line of products, we knew we wanted to develop a series of characters small children could relate to. Our target audience is just beginning to discover the world, so we thought it would be cool for them to share their first experiences with characters who were having similar experiences at the same time. Because these books were always meant to be a series, the general lines of the entire story would need to be drawn up from the very beginning. We would need a long term commitment from the author and illustrator of this series, which is not always an easy task.

Our first step in making this series a reality was to contact illustrator Miguel Ordóñez. We really love his distinctive style and had been hoping to entice him to get involved with Bilingual Readers for a while. We met over coffee to pitch our idea and were thrilled to see his ethusiasm for the project. The next step was to find an author to develop the story line and Miguel was quick to suggest one of the authors we already had in mind for this project, Antonio Vicente. The relationship between author and illustrator in a long term project like this can be very delicate, so it was especially comforting for us to know that Miguel and Antonio had worked well together previously for other publishers. They also happen to be childhood friends, which seemed especially fitting for a series of books about friendship!

Antonio sent us a draft of the first book and an outline for the entire series, with all sorts of hilarious scenes in which the little green boy learns about life on Earth. We were especially impressed by the underlying themes of tolerance and social integration in this book. It’s amazing what small children are able to understand if it is explained to them in a clear and simple way, and Antonio has a true gift for explaining how easy and fun it can be to make friends with someone who is different from you.

Miguel also sent us sketches of the main characters and a few scenes from the book, and it was amazing to see how well his illustrations made the story come alive. He spent several months developing the characters and mapping out each scene from the book one by one. Miguel is also doing the graphic design and layout for this series, so when he sent us the first drafts of the full book layout Marina and the Little Green Boy/Marina y el niño verde already looked much like it does today. During the translation and editing process we read and reread the text time and time again in both languages. We read to ourselves, out loud to others, did all the voices and slashed and tweaked the text here and there. The finished product is a really cool book we hope you’ll love as much as we do!

image credit: social media roi, via flickr

Thanks to the possibilities of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, we’ve been able to connect with bilingual families and communities all over the world. As part of this international bilingual community, we’re able to share our thoughts on bilingualism and news about our company, as well as learn all about all sorts of bilingual resources from so many of our readers.

This week we thought we’d take our social networking one step further by creating a separate Facebook fan page for each of our first three products: Easy Alphabet!/¡Abecedario fácil!, Sea Animals/Animales del mar and Jungle Animals/Animales de la selva and Marina and the Little Green Boy/Marina y el niño verde. Most of you are familiar with Facebook fan pages, so I don’t have to explain that part of our motivation is to get the word out about these new bilingual books in order to reach more families. Fans will also have the opportunity to upload fan photos spotlighting our books, which is a great way for us to get to know you better. But we are also really excited about using these fan pages as a way to get to know your opinion of our books. What do you like? What would you change? How can we better meet your needs in the future? Any cool ideas about how to use our books in new and interactive ways? We’d love to hear from you, so please don’t hesitate to let us know what you think!

image credit: school bus school bus school bus, via flickr

My husband is Spanish and I am from Australia. At home we always speak to our son in English because we feel it will be easier for our son to learn Spanish since we live in Spain. We are starting to consider options for when he starts school next year. Would it be best for us to send him to a foreign (American or British) school? Would he feel obligated to correct his classmates’ English? Could he have similar problems in a Spanish school?

Dear Parents,
From what I understand you have chosen the ONE HOME, ONE LANGUAGE (OHOL) model: only one language is spoken at home by all family members. This system has the great advantage of providing an important stimulus for the non-community language (the language which is not frequently spoken in the community you live in), which usually becomes weaker over time and often disappears from the child’s productive range (some children stop speaking this language with their parents on a daily basis when they feel more secure communicating in their “stronger” or dominant language).

You are right about one fundamental thing: your son will receive enough linguistic input to learn Spanish from the community outside your home (in the park, with his grandparents and cousins, on tv, in shops…). You are also right to be concerned about the next phase: the school you choose is a very strong linguistic stimulant so it is important to bear this in mind.

Your question addresses one of the most frequent matters affecting OHOL homes: Should we continue to give priority to the non-community language? How should we stimulate Spanish? What kind of repercussions would sending my child to a primarily English or bilingual school have on my child’s social development?

The first thing you need to know is that there is no “right” answer to this question, and there is no obligation to make a decision and stick with it no matter what. I always use a graphic example to illustrate this matter: achieving a balance between both languages. All bilingual parents want their children to develop a balance between both languages, so that they feel just as comfortable using both their languages. In order to achieve this goal there is just one secret: to design a scale on which the linguistic needs of each child in both languages balance one another out. Imagine a scale with weights for English on one side and for Spanish on the other. The weight we give to each language should depend on two variables: the time your child spends on activities in each language and the need for active communication during these activities (Watching TV does not require your child to speak, so it is just a source of passive input, while playing soccer with Spanish neighbors does require your child to speak and games like “Who’s Who” are even better for this sort of active language use.) The more balanced the scale, the more balanced your child’s linguistic activity will be.

Your child’s education is a major source of weight for this scale. Your child will not only spend many hours a day in this environment, but the school you choose will also define many of his social relationships, which are one of the strongest communicative stimulants, since a child truly develops his linguistic abilities when he has to convince others, negotiate, complain, show confidence, etc. A school where more than 60% of classes are given in the non-community language (this is not always the case in so called bilingual schools, but it is the case in schools like The American School, King’s College, British Council, etc.) are a great opportunity to preserve this language. This sort of education also helps with the development of literacy skills, which are of the utmost importance when defining linguistic abilities in any language.

At this point, your son has a lot of weight on the English side of the scale. For a few years longer (until he is around five), one of the most important weights is the communication in your home (repetitive activities like bathtime, eating, reading…), but soon your child’s friends and after school activities will become more important and it will be harder to maintain this balance. It can be difficult to gain admission to some bilingual schools when a child is older so, although you may not have an immediate need for this sort of extra English input now, you may want to consider looking into this option.

In any case, all bilingual families should bear in mind that  there are other ways of adding weight to the scales: after school activities (especially small group activities and team sports), contact with the community of origen (feel free to contact us if you need contacts in Madrid) and hiring an English speaking nanny are other alternatives. It’s hard to predict which way the scales will tip, so we should always be open to changing our strategy as we go along, putting more emphasis on one language or the other according to each child’s needs.

Of course we should also realize that creating this sort of linguistic environment for our child and even for ourselves as parents will define us to a certain extent as a different sort of family, and a unique child. Like it or not, our extended families and neighbors will have an opinion about this, and we will have to do our best to make this situation feel as natural as possible for our children so that they don’t feel awkward. If you begin to notice that your son’s Spanish level is affecting his social development, there is always time to move the weights around a bit and this can be done as you go along.

As to whether or not your son will feel obligated to correct his peers’ English, I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Young children don’t tend to correct one another because communication generally takes priority over correct speech and each child tends to correct himself in order communicate with others. Also, if your child begins to correct his classmates’ English, he opens himself up to criticism of his Spanish, so that sort of situation generally works itself out.

On the other hand, I believe there are other factors to be considered when choosing a school for your child, such as your economic situation, proximity, day to day quality of life, the specific needs of each child and family, whether or not you plan on moving to another country at some point, etc. I’m sure you are keeping all of this in mind, but it is just a reminder for all those bilingual families out there who are faced with similar issues.

If you do decide to choose a primarily English school, it would be a good idea to include a few extra curricular activities to reinforce your son’s Spanish skills, although that will be easy if you live in Spain. If you decide to send your son to an all Spanish school or a bilingual school with 30% of classes in English (we’ll include a more detailed analysis of this option in a later post), you will have to make more of an effort to encourage your son’s English language development. Whatever you choose, you’ll be successful if you make sure to keep those language scales balanced. Good luck with your bilingual family. You already have two of the most important tools for success: intuition and the will to succeed.

Dr. Orlanda Varela is a Child Psychiatrist and the Coordinator of the educational project for Bilingual Families at SINEWS Multilingual Therapy Institute in Madrid. SINEWS organizes bilingualism workshops for parents in Madrid, as well as personalized speech therapy sessions to bilingual families with specific language development problems. For more information, please visit sinews.es.

I’m afraid I’ve always been a bit of a summer addict. When most people are busy complaining about the heat and hiding out in air conditioned buildings, I’ve always been happy to break out my little sundresses, coat myself in sunscreen (a girl’s got to protect her skin after all) and enjoy all that fabulous sunshine. So after waving goodbye to my parents at the Madrid airport last week and noticing that it’s no longer light outside when my alarm clock rings at 7:01 am, I have to admit it would be very tempting for me to develop a case of the post vacation blues. And then I remember something that makes me almost want to speed the whole end of summer/start of fall process along: our new (and first) catalogue of bilingual books and games is set to launch in just six weeks!

While it may be the end of summer now, this fall is the start of something big for Bilingual Readers, and I can’t wait to see the books we’ve been working so hard on for so long in the hands of the bilingual families they were created for! That’s one of the many reasons we were so excited to see our first complete sample copies of Easy Alphabet!/¡Abecedario fácil! arrive from the printers last Friday. Our hands were trembling as we opened up the box and examined each item in this bilingual early literacy kit one at a time. Then yesterday we received another package from the printers with samples of Two Little Libros: Jungle Animals and Sea Animals. We could hardly believe it ourselves, but both the books and the kit turned out exactly how we envisioned them, so we just had to post a few pictures to give you all a sneak peak of what you can look forward to in October. We hope you love them as much as we do!

Joy and her kids

Thirty two year old Joy Pulsifer has been running Hogar Amiguitos, a children’s home in Jinotega, Nicaragua for the last four years. This amazing mom to 17 (that’s right, 17!) children, took some time out of her ridiculously hectic schedule to talk to Bilingual Readers about her unusual bilingual home.

BR: How did you end up running Hogar Amiguitos? How many people work with you full time?

Joy: I came down to teach English for a year. When the director at that time left, I was given the job.  That was four years ago. I currently have 9 full time staff members.  Only one other volunteer and I are here 24/7.

BR:  How many children live at Hogar Amiguitos? How old are they, and what kind of backgrounds do they come from?

Joy: There are 17 children living here. They range from age 6 to 17, and most of them have been placed here because of severe abuse ranging from simple beatings to attempted murder.

BR: Walk us through an average day at Hogar Amiguitos.

Joy: The children get up at 6am, get dressed and clean their rooms. Devotions at 6:30 am. Breakfast is at 7am. The high school students have to be at school at 7:30 am. Fortunately, the high school is only a five minute walk from our home.  The elementary students have private tutoring in the mornings from 8am to 10am.  After this they shower and get dressed for school. Lunch for them is at 11:30 am, then we leave for school at 12 noon.  They have school from 12:30 until 5 pm.  The high school students return at 12:30 and have lunch at 1pm.  They have private tutoring from 2pm until 5pm.  The elementary students return around 5:30 pm.  Supper is at 6pm.  After supper is free time.  Bedtime for the younger children is 8pm and for the teenagers around 9pm.  This is also when the adults go to bed since by that time we are completely exhausted!

BR: Why do you think it’s important for the kids to learn languages other than Spanish?

Joy: Speaking more than one language is essential for success in this global economy.  Tourism is a large industry here in Nicaragua, and the best jobs in this area go to those who are bilingual.  Truthfully, most of the best paying jobs in all industries here go to bilingual workers.

BR: What steps are you taking to help your children learn other languages?

Joy: The children here have German lessons and English lessons several times a week.  Also, we frequently speak to them in English so they are accustomed to hearing both languages.

BR: Any funny stories about the kids learning English with you?

Joy: I was teaching a lesson about household items.  We learned “bed”, “blanket” and “pillow”, but when we arrived at “sheet” we had a problem with pronunciation.  The entire class was yelling an obscenity. No matter how hard I tried to correct them, they just couldn’t get the difference between the two words.  Finally, I just moved on to chair.

BR: You are a mother to so many children. Any advice for all the parents out there?

Joy: Reading is such a wonderful way of stimulating the mind.  My children love reading and being read to.  I always include a book as one of their birthday presents and encourage anyone coming to bring books for the children especially book that are in both English and Spanish.

BR: Some of our readers may be interested in supporting Hogar Amiguitos. What are your most pressing needs right now?

Joy: We are currently in the process of installing the second largest solar energy system in Nicaragua (you can read more about the project here).  When it is completed it will be the first sell back system in the country.  This means that we will be feeding energy into the grid, likely more than we use.  We will not get paid for the extra energy, but we don’t mind since it will basically lower our electric bill to $0, while helping to provide clean effecient energy to the country.  We are currently waiting for the local power company to install a bi-directional meter, the only one in the country, so we can start operating the system at full capacity.  We are also in the process of raising funds for two solar hot water heaters one for the boys and the other for the girls bathroom.  This will further lower our energy use.  If you are interested in supporting this project or sponsoring a child at Hogar Amiguitos, please send us an email to info@bilingualreaders.com or contact Joy directly at joyepulsifer@aim.com.

Everyone has a story to tell, and we’d love to hear yours! If you’re interested in being interviewed for our Real Stories, Real Lives section please send us an email at info@bilingualreaders.com.

One of our main goals at Bilingual Readers is to to provide resources for bilingual and multilingual families and communities. With the launch of our catalogue of English/Spanish bilingual books, games and activities in October we hope to become a constantly growing source of materials, which will help parents to reinforce their children.

The International Children’s Digital Library is an amazing source of reading material for bilingual families to enjoy. This library of digital books for 3-13 year olds is currently available in nine languages (English, Spanish, Chinese, Persian, Arabic, Filipino, French, German and Hebrew), and you can search for titles by age appropriateness, fiction, non-fiction, book length or subject matter. According to the Library’s Mission Statement, it’s goal is “to support the world’s children in becoming effective members of the global community - who exhibit tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages and ideas — by making the best in children’s literature available online free of charge.” They go on to say that “A fundamental principle of the Foundation is that children and their families deserve to have access to the books of their culture, as well as the majority culture, regardless of where they live.

We at Bilingual Readers agree wholeheartedly with this mission and hope our books can help bilingual families around the world to share the many benefits of growing up in a multilingual home. Happy reading!