children's books

Why I picked the countries that Millie visited?

December 4, 2020 by Erika Deery Leave a Comment

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!

Erika

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

December 1, 2020 by Erika Deery Leave a Comment

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!

Erika

Ten books to read to your toddler

September 7, 2018 by Erika Deery Leave a Comment

A lot has been said about the benefits of reading to your child, how it improves their vocabulary and literacy, makes them keen readers and also how it is a nice way to spend time together.

There are so many children’s books out there and as a parent it can be overwhelming to pick one up especially if you are buying one for your own child or as a gift.

Here are my 10 favourite children’s books so far. I have to say that this list is totally based on my toddler’s preferences and excitement when reading each book, as well as the fact that they are the ones that I don’t mind reading over and over. Even though all of these are English speaking books I usually translate them into Spanish as I read them aloud.

1. Where is the green sheep? – Mem Fox / Judy Horacek

Find the green sheep searching through beautifully illustrated pages whilst showing your little one about colours, places and opposites. We love reading this story just before bedtime and my daughter loves pointing out at the different words she is learning.

2. There is a hippopotamus on the roof eating cake – Hazel Edwards

I find this book so charming. This story is told by a little girl who is telling us all about her friend, the hippopotamus, who is on her roof eating cake. He also does a lot of many things like watching TV, riding his bike and going to work. The copy we have at home was signed by Hazel Edwards herself!

3. Bedtime for chickies – Janee Trasler

Any book that encourages a toddler to go to sleep has my seal of approval. It is time for those chickies to go to bed, but not before they drink their water, go potty and read a story. The illustrations are very cute and when I read aloud I also say that it is bedtime for my little one. It is a short and sweet story that hopefully helps ease your little one into bedtime.

4. Ten little fingers ten little toes – Mem Fox / Helen Oxenbury

This is also a very cute book with lots of babies from different places. It is a great way for your child to learn about their hands and feet. It rhymes beautifully in English and easy to translate on the go into Spanish (without the rhyme of course). My daughter’s favourite pages are the ones with the little hands and feet, as you can see it is a bit wrinkly as she just loves comparing her own hands with the ones in the book.

5. Say please, Little bear – Peter Bently / Robert McPhillips

Little bear is a bit rough and he tends to forget his manners, but Daddy Bear comes up with a plan. This book is a good size if your little one is a bit older as the story line is a bit more complicated. If you can’t read all of the story at once do not worry about it, you can still point at all the cute animals and toys in the story.

6. The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Eric Carle

Before even having kids I always wondered why did I see this book being sold everywhere? But really, how can you go wrong when you have a beautiful story about a butterfly’s life cycle that combines, food, numbers and the days of the week? No wonder it is a classic to have in every child’s bookshelf.

7. Tickles – Leslie Patricelli

This is part of a book series about a baby’s life moments. In this particular book, the cute baby is being chased by the Tickle monster! It is relatable for toddlers and it is a great way for your little one to learn the name of body parts while you tickle them! Good fun for you and your little one! WARNING: Do not read before bedtime.

8. Wombat stew – Marcela K. Vaughan / Pamela Lofts

A very clever dingo caught a wombat and he is going to make a stew with it! Oh no! Can his friends save him? Australia has an awesome fauna and what better way to show your kid about it than with a great story. It probably is a bit long for little little ones and you will enjoy reading a story with a bit more words. For this particular book I never translate it as for some reason I find it very difficult and I think I enjoy having a go at my best Aussie accent!

9. Pelican – Brian Wildsmith

This book was actually given to my husband when he was a child. It is about a little boy, Paul, who finds a very large egg that turns out to be a pelican. Paul now has to teach it to help at the farm. This book is also a longer story for tiny toddlers, however, we like this book because there are half pages that uncover a different picture. The story is very clever and my baby enjoys pointing at all the water and animals in the book. I am not sure if this one is still on sale as new but I have seen it for sale used on Amazon.

pelican

10. Any book that shows kids how to count one woolly wombat

I have been reading recently that exposing children to numbers from an early age can help them with math at a later stage. A little familiarity with numbers won’t hurt them and you will also have fun if you find a book with cute illustrations. I really like One Woolly Wombat by Kerry Argent or I love my 1 2 3 (Ollie) by Anna Walker.

I hope you enjoyed this list and that it makes you excited about reading to your little one. How about you? What are your favourite book for little toddlers? Leave us a comment here or on Facebook.

Happy reading!

Erika

What are bilingual books?

March 13, 2018 by Erika Deery Leave a Comment

The world is getting smaller, the number of bilingual families is growing and with this, there is a need and a desire to teach both languages to children. There are a few strategies to raise bilingual children, one of the most popular one is OPOL (One Parent One Language) in which each parent (or carer) speaks to the child exclusively in one language. For example, a bilingual family where dad speaks to the child only in English and mum speaks only in Spanish.

Bilingual books can be a good resource for parents, teachers or carers to teach a target language. But, what are bilingual books? As you can imagine, bilingual books are books that have the same story in two different languages. The text is generally split in each language as the objective for children is to read without mixing languages. This way, for example, the carer that always talks to the child in English, will read the story in English, and the carer that talks in Spanish, will read the story in Spanish. Nowadays, there is more demand for bilingual books in different languages, and while I focus on bilingual books for children in English and Spanish, there are bilingual books in many different combinations. In fact, my local library has books in English-Greek, English-Mandarin, English-Italian and many more. This is because those are the books that the international communities in my city are looking for.

Now that I told you about bilingual books, I also need to tell you what bilingual books are NOT. Bilingual books are NOT books to learn languages or grammar, Bilingual books are NOT books that mix language and they are NOT books that are translated too literally.

How do I read a bilingual children’s book?

It’s very important to be aware that if you are the parent or carer that always speaks in English, your role will be to always read the story in English. On the other hand, if you are the carer that always speaks Spanish, then you will read in Spanish. It’s also useful to point at the illustrations, objects and characters. Ask your child questions about what will happen next. Bilingual books are not a magic pill that will make your child speak another language overnight, however, they are a powerful tool, that combined with daily conversation, music and lots of patience, will help you raise bilingual children.

What do you think? I hope I piqued your interest to learn more about bilingual books and that you can find books that can entertain your kids while you give them the gift of speaking another language.

Happy Reading!

How to get the most out of your kids alphabet books

June 28, 2017 by Erika Deery Leave a Comment

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.

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.

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.

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!”

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.

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!

5 ways to improve your child’s reading experience

June 25, 2015 by Erika Deery Leave a Comment

We all know that there are a lot of beautiful children’s books out there. But let’s face it, you can only read the Hungry Caterpillar so many times!

Even I have noticed that my little one has started to get bored with the same stories, but I have come up with ways to make things a little bit more interesting.

1. Be an actor. If you are not already doing this…. Make voices and intonations, different accents help too. Surprise your little one by getting out your inner actor. For example, if I read the Millie book to my baby I pretend the Rabbit on the Moon is Spanish and that Kliff and Kloff are ‘chilangos’. When I read ‘Wombat stew’ I lisp as the lizard talks and I pretend to be a posh lady when Emu is telling Dingo how to improve his stew. You might feel silly at the beginning but hey, your baby won’t judge you for your non Oscar performance!

2. Ask them to tell you the story. If they are old enough and they are talking, you can ask them to tell you the story based on the pictures. Relax and enjoy! If they are younger though, you may be able to point and ask ‘what is this?’ so they can tell you. Another option is to ask ‘where is the elephant?’ Or ‘where is the house?’. You will be surprised at how much they know!

3. Don’t read the story. Focus on other things in the pictures, name the items and relate them to your life. For example, if the caterpillar ate one apple, say how much your little one loves apples or if they are older, what is their favourite colour of apple?

4. Join your local library. We are spoilt in Australia on this one. However, if you live elsewhere Google will tell you if there are any libraries near you. Nowadays, local libraries have a lot of programs for kids and you and your family will enjoy more variety without going through the expense of buying new books. Alternatively, you can swap books with friends or buy them second hand at a local market or on Amazon.

5. Use books in a different way. This one is not so much about reading but about playing with books. You can stack them, sort them, build a ‘bridge’ for your baby to walk over them as an obstacle course. The idea here is to let your kids know books can be fun.

I hope these tips help you in making your and your toddler’s reading experience a little better. Do you have any other tips you would like to share? Leave us your comments below! 🙂

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