Millie books - Los cuentos de Millie

Reading in two languages - Leyendo en dos idiomas

raising bilingual children

Where to buy bilingual children’s books?

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It may seem obvious that we should know where to buy bilingual children’s books.  However, for some reason, sometimes it seems that bilingual books are such a niche that it’s hard to come by good books.

Here are 5 ideas on where to buy bilingual children’s books. No matter what language combination, you are sure to find something.

  1. Amazon: Needless to say, this is the number one in my list.  On Amazon, you can find bilingual books in any language combination ready to be shipped to you no matter where you are in the world.  Amazon will be your most convenient option.  Make sure to use the search engine exactly what you are looking for, and you will be able to find bilingual children’s books of any subject and for any age!  If you want to check out the books I’ve written and illustrated, you can check out my Amazon author page.
  2. Your local bookstore: If supporting your local stores aligns more with your values, you can go to your local bookstore and actually have a chat with the owner or the store person.  Depending on your area they may be able to recommend some ideas or, if you don’t live in a bilingual area, you can ask to order the book by providing the ISBN.  This will take some more research and time on your part, but it will strengthen your sense of community.
  3. Facebook groups:  Join various local Facebook groups for parents or for dual language speakers in your area.  More often than not, you will be able to connect with parents who are trying to offload their bilingual books when their children have outgrown them.  You might even get them for free. I recently gave an entire crate with baby and toddler books in English and Spanish to a friend who recently had new babies.
  4. Local events and book fairs: If you live in a multicultural city, there will be for sure events organised by different community groups.  In my case, the Mexican community organises a lot of fun events for anyone who wants to join and enjoy.  The awesome thing about these events is that you get to meet the authors in person and get the books directly from their creator! It’s much more personal and I have to say, when I’ve set up market stalls, children really smile when they find out I actually wrote the books!
  5. Social media: All social media, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and others are also search engines.  The cool thing is that if you type “Bilingual children’s books + [insert target language]” you will be able to find many independent authors and/or publisher accounts.  There are also book bloggers that have great recommendations.  Even better, once you do a few searches, the algorithm will lead you to discover many more books alternatives.  Once you find them all you have to do is go to their links and buy directly from the authors or find the book on your favorite online bookstore.

And there you have it, 5 places where to buy bilingual children’s books.  Have I missed any options? which one is your favorite?

Happy Reading!

Erika

Entrevista con My Bilingual Child Corner

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¡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! 🙂

How to get the most out of your kids alphabet books

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Sometimes our kids ask to read the same book again and again, so much so, that we end up learning it by heart.  In the case of alphabet books, you don’t only have to read from A to Z in that order.  Here I share some tips so your trip through the letters of the alphabet is more fun.

  1. Focus on the drawing and the sound of the letter.

Ask your child what the illustration is, what is it for, what colour it is.  When your child says the word emphasize the sound of that word.  If it is an armadillo you can say “AAAAArmadillo”.  If it is a dinosaur you can say “DDDDDinosaur” and so on.  The idea is that your child can relate that sound to the letter he is seeing.

 

  1. Make a mistake.

This works very well with kids older than 3.  You can pretend to say the wrong letter or the wrong word for the illustration.  If your kid already knows that letter, they will be very happy to tell you the right letter.  If they don’t realise you have it wrong, maybe you need to wait a little bit to use this tip.

  1. Describe the illustrations.

You can talk about something special about the illustration, either the colours, the shapes or the characters expressions.  Don’t forget to be expressive with your voice.  For example “Poor Little fishy, the crocodile is going to eat it!”

 

  1. Name different words with the same letter.

Don’t limit yourself only to the word in the picture. Ask your kid what other words start with that letter.

  1. Ask your child to trace the letter with their finger.

You can show them how to do it and they can copy you.  This is great if the letters in the book have textures, are embossed or a are hidden within the picture.

So there you have it, these are my tips to get the most out of your alphabet books.  If you have different tips to the ones I included, feel free to share in the comments.

Happy Reading!