¡Hola amigos!Aquí les dejo la lectura en voz alta de Millie y los colores perdidos. Esta es la versión en español y ¡espero que les guste
Leyendo en voz alta – Millie y los colores perdidos
children's books
5 books to read during National Reconciliation Week
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.
Why I picked the countries that Millie visited?
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
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
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.
10. Any book that shows kids how to count
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?
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!
