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children's books

Modern Immigrant

January 20, 2022 by Erika Deery

I was recently interviewed at the Modern Immigrant podcast.  Vero, the host, does an amazing job at having heartfelt and interesting conversations with guests that, like me, have taken the plunge to change their life around, pack up and move up to a different country.  Migrating takes a lot of courage! In the episode, I share a little bit about my story, how I got into writing books and we remind ourselves that good things take time.
I love that this podcast is bilingual so if you want to listen to the episode you will hear me talking español.  Enjoy!
Hace poco me entrevistaron para el podcast de Modern Immigrant. Vero, la anfitriona, hace un trabajo increíble teniendo cálidas conversaciones con sus invitados, que como yo, empacaron y se mudaron a otro país. ¡Migrar toma mucha valentía! En este episodio, les comparto un poco de mi historia, de cómo empecé a escribir y nos recordamos que las cosas buenas toman tiempo.
Me encanta que este podcast es bilingüe, así que si quieren escuchar el episodio estará en español. ¡Que lo disfruten!

Listen here / Escucha aqui – Audio

Watch here/ Mira aquí – YouTube

Platicando con Vero de Modern Immigrant
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Filed Under: children's books

Bilingual Book Club

November 10, 2021 by Erika Deery

Estoy súper emocionada porque acabo de hacer uno de mis sueños realidad. Hace poco lancé al mundo un podcast llamado Bilingual Book Club. Este es un espacio para padres, maestros y cuidadores para descubrir libros bilingües. He conectado con autores de libros bilingües alrededor del mundo y me encanta la energía tan positiva y tan creativa que hemos podido compartir.

Lo puedes escuchar en Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts o en tu app favorita. Tambien lo puedes ver en YouTube. ¡Nos vemos en el club!

I’m super excited because I just made one of my dreams come true. A little while ago, I launched my podcast into the world. It’s called the Bilingual Book Club. It’s a space for parents, teachers and carers to discover bilingual books. I’ve connected with bilingual children’s book authors around the world and I love the positive and creative energy that we have been able to share.

You can listen on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts or your favuorite podcast app. You can also watch it on YouTube. See you at the club!

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Filed Under: children's books, lectura infantil

Reading aloud: Millie and the lost colours

August 21, 2021 by Erika Deery

Let’s go on an adventure around the world! Millie and Mr Raccoon discover the world outside has turned completely grey. When they find a mysterious treasure box and a map, they set off on a spectacular adventure! Can they find the colours of the world? In this read-aloud, we follow Millie and Mr Raccoon in their quest for colour around the world. In their journey, they visit the UK, the Netherlands, Kenya, Brazil, Mexico, India and Japan where they meet new friends and find treasures along the way.

Find the book on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/2XKRWLb

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Filed Under: children's books, leyendo en voz alta, Reading aloud Tagged With: autores australianos, bebés bilingues, bilingual babies, bilingual children's books, bilingual children's books english spanish, bilingual kids, books for babies, books for toddlers, children's books, crianza bilingue, lectura infantil, leyendo en voz alta, libros bilingues, libros bilingües para niños, libros en inglés para niños, libros para niños en inglés

Leyendo en voz alta: Millie y los colores perdidos

May 28, 2021 by Erika Deery

En este video leo en voz alta mi libro “Millie y los colores perdidos” en su versión en español

Millie y el Sr. Mapache descubren que el mundo afuera se ha puesto completamente gris. Cuando encuentran un cofre misterioso y un mapa, ¡se embarcan en una aventura espectacular! ¿Podrán Millie y el Sr. Mapache encontrar los colores del mundo?

En esta lectura en voz alta, acompañamos a Millie y al Sr. Mapache en su búsqueda de los colores alrededor del mundo. En su viaje, visitan el Reino Unido, Holanda, Kenia, Brasil, México, India y Japón, donde conocen nuevos amigos y encuentran tesoros en el camino.

Encuéntralo en Amazon USA: https://amzn.to/2XKRWLb

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Filed Under: Bilingual Children's books, books for babies, books for toddlers, children's books, lectura infantil, leyendo en voz alta, libros para niños, Reading aloud Tagged With: autores australianos, bebés bilingues, bilingual babies, bilingual children's books, bilingual children's books english spanish, bilingual kids, books for babies, books for toddlers, children's books, crianza bilingue, lectura infantil, leyendo en voz alta, libros bilingues, libros bilingües para niños, libros en inglés para niños, libros para niños en inglés

5 books to read during National Reconciliation Week

May 23, 2021 by Erika Deery

Hi everyone!

It’s been a long time since I’ve written a blog post, so I didn’t want to miss this opportunity!

In Australia, we celebrate National Reconciliation Week.  Every year, on this week, we acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples culture and history.

This is why, I wanted to share with you a few books written and illustrated by Australian Indigenous authors.  I think books are a great way to get us closer to different cultures and views of the world and are a great tool to spark interesting conversations with our children.

So here they are the books I will share today.

Welcome to country, Aunty Joy Murphy and Lisa Kennedy

In Australia, or at least in Victoria, we have a welcome or an acknowledgment to country on many events.  This means that everyone there, recognises the fact that we are standing on Aboriginal land and pay our respects to Aboriginal peoples.  A long time ago, visitors from different Aboriginal communities needed to ask permission to enter their land.  It’s like going to someone’s house and asking for permission to come in.  If people were allowed in, they would be welcomed to the country by an Elder of that particular Nation.  In Melbourne, we are the home of the Wurundjeri people and there are over 200 Aboriginal nations in all of Australia!  I like this book because it puts a Welcome to Country in the form of a picture book.  The illustrations are exquisite and have lots of texture.  What I loved about this book is that it recognises ancestors, the richness of the land and the importance of looking after it.  This book can lead to conversations about your family ancestors, about the land you live in and about caring for the environment.  Ideal for kids from 5-10 years old.

Shapes of Australia, Bronwyn Bancroft

This book is all about the amazing illustrations and the shapes we can find in nature.  Each page spread has a bright, bold and colourful image in Aboriginal style with a sentence to describe it.  However, I think the book can have your little ones raising their hand to tell you what they can see.  This was one of my kid’s favourites because they each came up with different ideas on what the illustrations were.  We also talked about the different colours and shapes.  I love books that makes your kids learn without even knowing!  Ideal for kids 2-8 years old.

Colours of Australia, Bronwyn Bancroft

Similar to the previous book, Colours of Australia shows an amazing Aboriginal illustration on each page spread.  Each illustration is inspired by a different colour.  Kids will be amazed wondering if they are the colours of the rainbow or just the colours of nature.  The artwork for this book is bold and bright and will have kids telling you their own story in each page.  Great book to discuss colour and Aboriginal art. Ideal for kids 2-8 years old.

The Emu Who Ran Through the Sky, Helen Milroy

This is a story about Emu, who really wants to win the Emu race.  Except, he is not as fast as all the other emus and that makes him really sad. Emu finds new friends who help him on his journey to be the best at the race, and who knows? They might find creative ways to help him win!

Little Bird’s Day, Sally Morgan and Johny Warrkatja Malibirr

This is a whimsical story following a little bird’s day from morning to night. The illustrations of this book have the traditional Aboriginal style and colour palettes.  This is a great resource to talk about the things we do during the morning or at night.  It’s told in first person, so I think a good think to ask kids would be, what would your day look like if you were a bird?  I think kids would come up with the craziest answers!

So there you have it, five books that will show kids about Aboriginal Australia.

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Filed Under: children's books Tagged With: animal books, children's books

Entrevista con My Bilingual Child Corner

February 2, 2021 by Erika Deery

¡Hola amigos!

Hace poquito tuve la fortuna de ser entrevistada para My Bilingual Child Corner.  Es un recurso increíble en cuanto a la crianza bilingüe sobretodo si estás tratando de que tu peque aprenda inglés como lengua objetivo.

Me encantó platicar con María en esta entrevista porque hablamos sobre mi proceso creativo a la hora de escribir libro y un poco de lo que me mueve a contar e ilustrar historias para los pequeñines.

¡Espero que les guste! 🙂

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Filed Under: actividades bilingues, bilingual activities, Bilingual Children's books, books for babies, books for toddlers, children's books, crianza bilingúe, lectura infantil, Libros bilingües para niños, libros para niños, raising bilingual childre, raising bilingual children Tagged With: bebés bilingues, crianza bilingue, lectura infantil, leyendo en voz alta, libros bilingues, libros bilingües para niños, libros en inglés para niños, libros para niños, libros para niños en inglés, raising bilingual children, reading for children

Crianza Bilingüe durante la Pandemia Covid-19

January 10, 2021 by Erika Deery

Hace poco tuve la fortuna de platicar con Minerva Ortega, creadora del blog de Reto Bilingüe acerca de cómo nos hemos tenido que adaptar para mantener la crianza bilingüe en casa durante la pandemia COVID-19.  Aquí dejo el video por si están buscando tips o simplemente si no se quieren sentir solos en este viaje!

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A while ago, I had the pleasure of having a chat with Minerva Ortega, creator of the blog Reto Bilingue (in Spanish), about how we have had to adapt to keep raising our kids bilingual during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Here’s the video in case you are looking for tips or simply if you don’t want to feel alone in this journey!

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Filed Under: actividades bilingues, bilingual activities, Bilingual Children's books, books for babies, books for toddlers, children's books, lectura infantil, Libros bilingües para niños, libros para niños Tagged With: bebés bilingues, crianza bilingue, lectura infantil, libros en inglés para niños, libros para niños, libros para niños en inglés

Why I picked the countries that Millie visited?

December 4, 2020 by Erika Deery

As an author, you make a lot of decisions all the time.  Some are big, like your character’s name and some are small, like what they are wearing today.  You may be wondering why I sent Millie to visit the countries she visited.   The answer to this is a big mash of a lot of things.  Some I’ve been to, some I’ve always wanted to go to, some have seen my best friends been born and some felt just right.

So, without further ado, here are some of the reasons why I picked these places:

United Kingdom

A couple of years ago, I was lucky enough to spend Christmas in London.  One day, my husband and I took some sharing bikes and went for a ride along the Thames and under so many bridges and lanes and alleys.  It was a lot of fun! Does it ever happen to you that you are in one place and you just really absorb with all your senses everything that is happening around you? And then you take a mind photo of a particular place from your point of view? Well, this happened to me here and I knew I wanted Millie go there one day.  I picked red because of how the buses pop in the greyness of the city.

 

The Netherlands

My favourite flowers are tulips, especially when they are in a field lots of them one after the other.  In 2002, I went to the Netherlands on a trip for university and I didn’t get to see any tulip fields! Sniff!  This is because most of the time I spent it at the ports and the fresh produce markets.  I did get to go to the Mexican Embassy which was a very nice highlight.  I picked orange because it’s a very Dutch colour (it’s the colour of the Dutch royal family and they use this colour in international sport).

 

 

Kenya

Kenya has been in mi bucket list since I saw The Lion King (don’t laugh at me).  I imagine one day being able to see the coolest animals of the planet in their natural habitat.  I have a friend from Kenya who helped me work out the typical way of dressing of the Masaii people that you will see in the book. In this illustration, I wanted to show the openness and the famous fiery sky. I know the greyness of the illustration doesn’t do it justice at all, but it’s part of the story.  The bird you see in the illustrations is a Little yellow flycatcher, they are cute!

 

 

Brazil

Since I was in junior high school I’ve always wanted to go to Brazil. Not only because Brazil wins a lot at the World Cup, but also because I think it’s such a happy and exuberant country.  They also speak Portuguese which to me it sounds beautiful! The background that you will see in the book is from Copacabana beach and I picked green because that’s the main colour in the Brazilian flag.

 

 

 

Mexico

Of course, I was going to include my home country in this book! And not only that, the illustration in the book shows the cathedral at my hometown Guadalajara.  This really old church is in the centre of the city and it is an iconic building with its yellow towers.  When I was growing up, there were stories of ghosts and secret tunnels!  Outside this place, it’s very common to see families walking together, kids blowing bubbles, a person selling colourful balloons and food stalls.   In this illustration, I wanted to show that blue corn actually exists. It’s even healthier than yellow or white corn.

 

India

One of my best friends here in Melbourne is from Mumbai.  I remember when I told her the idea of my books and she loved it. I can’t tell if I told her I wanted to put India or if she told me.  At this point, I had decided to include a local kid in each country.  My friend helped me a lot in getting the Marathi girl right.  You’ll see her sari is draped like pants because women from this region worked in the fields and they needed to move more freely. The image you see in the book shows the Gateway of Mumbai and the Taj Hotel.  They are both very famous buildings in the city of Mumbai.  I matched this colour in this part of the story because India has been a very large producer of Indigo dye (as you can imagine by the name).  A lot rainbow depictions exclude indigo from the colours of the rainbow because it can be indistinguishable from blue and violet.  Apparently, when Isaac Newton discovered the colours of the rainbow, tried to match the number of colours of the rainbow with the seven musical notes and the seven days of the week.  So until I hear anything official, indigo will stay.

Japan

This country has also always been on my bucket list.  Maybe it’s all the anime I watched as a little girl, the orderly culture and the way this country can be so technologically advanced and traditional at the same time.  Maybe I just want to go and eat sushi and ramen! I really struggled to come up with an item for Millie to get from Japan.  In my head, she met a little friend who gave her a violet kimono, a very valuable present!  The illustration shows the Hōzōmon gate which is the entrance to the Sensō-ji Temple in Tokio.

 

 

So, there you have it! I hope you enjoyed finding out a little bit about why I picked the countries that I picked.  They all have a little something special and I’m sure that Millie will visit one or more of them in her new adventures!  If you want to get the book, it{s available on Amazon here.

Happy reading!

ErikaFacebook

Filed Under: Bilingual Children's books, books for babies, books for toddlers, children's books Tagged With: bilingual children's books, bilingual children's books english spanish, books for toddlers, children's books

5 things I learned when I wrote Millie and the lost colours

December 1, 2020 by Erika Deery

When writing “Millie and the lost colours” learned a few things that may be a bit trivial but I think they are interesting.  Here they are!

1. It’s so hard to decide on accents and spellings – Writing a bilingual book is hard enough but deciding whether to use American or British (and Aussie) spelling was even harder! I had managed to sort of avoid some of the spelling that gave away one or the other but in this book even the title had a word with a different spelling. I have to say, that considering that Millie is a Mexican Australian little girl, she would have an Australian accent and would even call it soccer instead of football.  True story!

2. There’s more to grey than meets the eye – Before starting with the digital illustrations for Millie and the lost colours, I enrolled in a children’s book illustration course. I learned a lot of the basics and techniques that I will be using in future books, but what blew mi mind was that the colour grey can have many different undertones.  Maybe I knew it subconsciously, but I was not aware of this.  So, look at the illustrations and you’ll see that there is an undertone colour waiting to come out.  To illustrate it this way, it took me a lot longer but I think it was worth it!

3. There are actually more than 7 colours of the rainbow – The seven colours of the rainbow we know and love are there because those are the only ones that we can see. It seems there are about 1 million colours in a rainbow, but they are not visible to our eyes. For more quirky facts about rainbows here’s an article of one of my favourite podcasts, Stuff you should know.

 

4. The world is full of amazing architecture and special places – In this book, I made a bigger effort to have more detailed backgrounds and of course to do justice to the place in each illustration. I got to appreciate more the architecture of all these different places and I’m so excited to show them to you.

 

5. There may be more than one story in this book –

I originally was going to keep just Millie and Mr. Raccoon travelling around the world. However, when I got to Japan, ‘something’ was missing.  I then drew a little girl in a kimono and I knew I had to add other little kids in the story.  The text won’t say anything about them because a children’s book needs to be relatively short and I also needed to keep space for the Spanish.  However, your child can use their amazing imagination to come up with ideas on how they are helping Millie in her quest.

 

5. There’s no order of adjectives in Spanish – Up to this point, I have been writing all my books first in Spanish and then translating them to English. I wrote the very first draft of this book in English in an author workshop at my local library.  While I tend to easily translate on the go, I found it so hard to make the Spanish translation sound nice . In Spanish, we don’t really follow any patterns to describe something like we do in English.

And there you have it! These are the five things I learned while writing “Millie and the lost colours”.  If you want to get the book you can find it here.

Happy Reading!

ErikaFacebook

Filed Under: Bilingual Children's books, children's books Tagged With: bilingual children's books, bilingual children's books english spanish, books for toddlers, children's books, writing

Reading aloud: Millie goes to the ocean

November 14, 2018 by Erika Deery

Hello! Here’s the read-aloud of “Millie goes to the ocean”, this is the English version and I hope you and your kids enjoy it!

Happy Reading!

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Filed Under: Bilingual Children's books, books for babies, books for toddlers, children's books, Reading aloud Tagged With: autores australianos, bebés bilingues, bilingual babies, bilingual children's books, bilingual children's books english spanish, bilingual kids, books for babies, books for toddlers, children's books, crianza bilingue, lectura infantil, leyendo en voz alta, libros bilingues, libros bilingües para niños, libros en inglés para niños, libros para niños en inglés

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