We’re so pleased to announce that the dual language audio files for the latest adventure in the Marina and the Little Green Boy series, In the City, are finally available on our website. Just click here, and then click “download audio files” to access the mp3 files. There was a bit of a delay this time due to technical issues, so we apologize to any of you who previously tried to download the files unsuccessfully. Thanks so much for your patience!

Antonio Vicente and Marta Arteaga

Yesterday our favorite author/illustrator team, Antonio Vicente and Miguel Ordóñez, were interviewed on Spanish National Radio. They had a great time talking about the bilingual picture book series “Marina and the Little Green Boy / Marina y el niño verde”. So far there are two hilarious books in this series:

Marina y el niño verde / Marina and the Little Green Boy
Marina y el niño verde: en la ciudad / Marina and the Little Green Boy: In the City

Click here to listen to the interview.

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!

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.

For more information about Bilingual Readers, please visit us at bilingualreaders.com. If you like what you see, please tell a friend! You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter!

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! But will Pe’s disguise keep him from raising suspicions?

Marina and the Little Green Boy: In the City / Marina y el Niño Verde: en la ciudad 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.

• Second book in the “Marina and the Little Green Boy” series, with full text in English and Spanish.
• Tagged illustrations to reinforce basic vocabulary in English and Spanish.
• 2 years and up.
• The “Marina and the Little Green Boy” series teaches values such as integration, respect and tolerance.
• Cover with rounded corners.
• Audio files available at bilingualreaders.com.

After quite a bit of amateur editing, we’re happy to present you with a video interview with Antonio Vicente and Miguel Ordóñez, the author and illustrator of Marina and the Little Green Boy/Marina y el niño verde. If you have any questions about the book, the characters’ upcoming adventures or activities based on the story, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Enjoy!

image credit: audiophile, via flickr

As many of you know, all of the bilingual books we publish include the following text in a prominent location: Helpful hint for parents: If you are not a native speaker of the language you are trying to teach your child, you can find audio files with pronunciation aids, as well as many other helpful tips at www.bilingualreaders.com. One of our most important goals at Bilingual Readers is to give parents as many tools as possible to make the most out of our books, and the audio files have been a huge hit (click here to read more about our audio file project).

Today we’re thrilled to announce that the English and Spanish language audio files are now available for Marina and the Little Green Boy/Marina y el niño verde, the first title in a hilarious new picture book series about a little girl who makes friends with a little green alien who has been living in her attic.

You can now access the audio files for all our books by clicking on Catalogue, the title you are interested in and “download audio files.” It’s that simple!

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!

• First book in the “Marina and the Little Green Boy” series, with full text in English and Spanish.
• Tagged illustrations to reinforce basic vocabulary in English and Spanish.
• 2 years and up.
• The “Marina and the Little Green Boy” series teaches values such as integration, respect and tolerance.
• Cover with rounded corners.
• Audio files available at bilingualreaders.com.