We’re doing something a little bit different for this month’s installment of ReadMe. Instead of showcasing a book’s author, we’d actually like to introduce you to a brand new bilingual publishing house which we support 100%. First because we truly believe in what the publishers are doing and second because their products are different and, simply put, cool and innovative!

It’s called Bilingual Readers – we’ve linked to their blog’s articles in the past, so you might already know about them – and their first two bilingual books just came off the presses. (We’ll be talking about them over at SpanglishBabyFinds soon.) The third one, Marina and the Little Green Boy – which I’ll be reviewing today – is not even available until November.

Today’s ReadMe bilingual book is the story of a little girl, Marina, and an unlikely friend, a little green Martian who suddenly appears in her attic. Together they explore Marina’s house and her family life with the little girl as the teacher and the little green boy as a pupil. The imaginative story and its quirky illustrations are alluring because in the process of learning about his new world, the little Martian does a series of crazy and funny things that would have any child laughing.

The best part is that the pages are sprinkled with words describing certain illustration (such as: roof/tejado and plug/enchufe) which can help children learn basic vocabulary in both English and Spanish. There is, however, something else to this story.

“On one level, Marina y el niño verde is a children’s comedy about two friends from very different worlds,” explained Deanna Lyles, Bilingual Readers founder. “On a deeper level, the author, Antonio Vicente, also did a great job of including a more subtle message to teach children values such as integration, respect and tolerance.”

In other words, it’s not just a funny story about a little Martian. The book can also be use to help children understand the values mentioned above – so important in today’s multicultural societies  – in a simple manner.

Marina and the little green boy is the first in a series by author Miguel Ordóñez and illustrator Antonio Vicente who “put their together and created this fabulous story line with adorable and incredibly funny characters” which the publishers absolutely love. I can’t wait to see what the rest are going to be like. (Can you tell I L-O-V-E books?)

“One of our first ideas was to publish a series about “first experiences” for small children. Each book in the series would deal with a new experience that children all over the world could relate to. Our idea was to create a character or series of characters that would hold a child’s attention and give continuity to the first story,” said Lyles. “The truth is that Marina y el niño verde was just begging to be a series because one book just isn’t enough!”

Bilingual Readers, a small independent publishing company based in Madrid, Spain, is the creation of Lyles and her husband  Íñigo Gil.

“Íñigo and I began doing extensive research on bilingual language acquisition, early children’s literacy skills and multilingual parenting techniques in order to be as prepared as possible for raising our own bilingual children someday,” according to Lyles. “We were both fascinated by the important role reading plays in monolingual language development and could only conclude that reading was even more important for reinforcing language skills in bilingual children.”

Deanna Lyles

It didn’t hurt that both Lyles and Gil have worked in publishing for years.

“We plan to publish at least 12 titles during our first year, and gradually build a collection of bilingual books for modern parents who are interested in exposing their children to languages through reading at an early age,” Lyles said.

Íñigo Gil

Check out the rest of the interview I conducted via email with Lyles to find out more about Bilingual Readers’ philosophy and you’ll quickly see why we are fans:

SB – Why publish bilingual books?

“While reading monolingual books out loud to children is certainly beneficial, bilingual books are especially beneficial for bilingual families. For example, if one parent reads a book to a child in English and the other parent reads the same book in Spanish, the child will automatically begin to associate both languages with the stories and objects on the pages of the book.”

SB – How would you say parents raising bilingual children can “use” your books?

“Each book is different and can be used in different ways to help young children develop language and early literacy skills.  Stories like Marina y el niño verde are great for reinforcing vocabulary and sentence structure. Free audio files are available on our web site in both languages for parents to use. Of course, the most important thing parents can do with our books is use them to help show their kids how fun reading can be, so that they’ll be motivated to keep reading as they grow.”

The Giveaway:

Unfortunately, neither one of Bilingual Readers’ three books are available in the U.S. yet, but both Lyles and Gil are working hard to change that. In the meantime, as you probably know by now, part of ReadMe includes the opportunity to win a copy of the book being reviewed. In this case, it’ll be sent to you all the way from la madre patria. To win, all you have to do is visit Bilingual Readers site and come back to leave us a comment about something you learned while you were there. It’s that easy!

Giveaway rules.

This giveaway ends at midnight EST on Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009.  Only valid U.S. shipping addresses.

Entries/Comments that do not follow the submission guidelines will be invalid and automatically deleted.  Sorry, just need to keep  it fair. Good luck to all!

Remember to be on the lookout for a review of Bilingual Readers’ other two books, Easy Alphabet!/¡Abecedario fácil! and Two Little Libros: Sea Animals/Animales del mar and Jungle Animales/Animales de la selva over at SpanglishBabyFinds in the weeks to come. I promise you’ll fall in love with them as quickly as I did!

If you’re a regular reader of SpanglishBaby, you know that I’m a book lover and that there’s nothing that makes me happier than seeing my daughter follow in my footsteps. Books have always been an escape for me and even when I’ve been at my busiest – like when Vanessa was born and I didn’t even have time to shower – they have been my constant companions.

That’s why I’m so excited to announce the launch of our newest monthly series: ReadMe. We have teamed up with several Bilingual/Spanish children’s book publishers to bring you a review of a new book every month. The post will include an interview with the author in which we will specifically touch upon the subject of raising bilingual and bicultural children.

Although we’ve written several book reviews in the past, Ana and I decided to create ReadMe because we want to have a series dedicated exclusively to literacy and bilingualism. We all have heard or know the importance of reading when raising bilingual kids. We want to reinforce how fundamental this activity is by highlighting the options we all have available when it comes to bilingual children’s literature.

We also want to encourage you to read to your children or – if they’re old enough to do it themselves – to help you inspire them to do so. That’s why each monthly ReadMe will also include a giveaway of the book we’ll be reviewing

The Case of the Pen Gone Missing/El Caso de la Pluma Perdida

We’re launching ReadMe with a review of a book intended for elementary school-aged children. The book is called The Case of the Pen Gone Missing and it was written by René Saldaña, Jr. The publisher, Piñata Books, an imprint of Arte Público Press, was featured in our recent post about Latino Publishing Houses.

René Saldaña, Jr. is the author of The Whole Sky Full of Stars (Random House, 2007), The Jumping Tree (Delacorte, 2001), and Finding Our Way: Stories (Random House, 2003). He lives in Lubbock, Texas, where he teaches in the College of Education at Texas Tech University. Saldaña, and his Swedish wife, are raising their two children trilingual.

His short mystery, The Case of the Pen Gone Missing, is the first in a series of three featuring fifth-grader, Mickey Rangel, a “Web-licensed” kid detective. Even though it’ll be several years before Vanessa is able to enjoy this book, it was a nice treat for me.

“I’m fascinated by detective stories, love watching the crime scene shows, both fictional and real on television, love reading crime novelists and think fondly still to this day of the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books,” Saldaña explained in an interview via email.

And that’s exactly what I thought of when I read it. My earliest memories of checking out books from the library take me back to my bilingual elementary school in Perú, fourth grade and Nancy Drew. I remember devouring those mysteries and anxiously going back for more. Although I’m no longer that child, I remember those books fondly because the author was able to spark my curiosity so as to make me come back for more. I can see how Saldaña’s writing would do the same for young readers. Not to mention the fact that Saldaña’s portrayal of a fifth grader and his classmates is painstainkingly accurate – including a “bully-type” character, a popular girl and all the emotions that go with having a crush on that “unattainable” girl.

One of the best things about this title is that Arte Público Press/Piñata Books has translated it into Spanish. All you have to do is flip the book around and voilà, you’ll get la versión en español, front cover and all.

“The two languages meet in the middle, which I think is very cool because they’ve done away with the issue of which language takes precedence over the other (as happens with other translations: English and Spanish alternating from one page to the next, or the English version as the first half, Spanish the second),” according to Saldaña.

Lots of you have asked about literacy, the minority language and older children. Both the author and I can assure you that this book is for you. Check out the rest of Saldaña’s interview and you’ll see why:

SB: How would you say parents raising their kids bilingual can “use” your book to do so?

“I think it depends on the grasp of the languages on the parts of the kids. Say, they’re like my boys: English mastery, learning Swedish and Spanish in the home: I’d have the kids read the story in English so that the kids can know what happens as the characters do their thing. Then I’d read the Spanish aloud along with them. This might take a bit longer, though the book is quite short and it can be done. Or if they’ve got a good grasp of reading themselves, they know the story now, so they can pick up the Spanish version and have at it. I’d think of reading it in both languages as a parent to be able to talk about the nuances of language. For example, I would use the phrase ‘nos movimos‘, for ‘we moved.’ My mom says it ‘nos mudamos‘. It’d make for some nice family talk time. Showing how languages share lots in common sometimes, sometimes not.”

SB: As a writer and a teacher, can you talk about the importance of literacy?

René Saldaña, Jr.

“I think we do a disservice to our community when we, as parents especially, don’t take a more active role in our children’s reading and writing lives. It’s not enough anymore to simply support them and to push them forward, regarding their educational careers. We have to learn what all we can be doing in the home to help them be successful. Reading aloud, for example, is not a thing just for teachers to do. We need to do it in the home for our children. Mem Fox states in one of her books, Reading Magic, I think, that if kids are not read to in the home, that when they get to kindergarten, they are years behind already, and teachers are having to play catch-up with them while the others who are read to are at level or more likely well beyond and moving ever forward. And can you imagine how much better off our kids will be when we’re reading aloud to them in one, two, or three languages!”

SB: Growing up, how important was reading in your family?

“In the home, my parents read. My mother got her Selecciones and she’d forgo cooking and even her telenovelas to read through it, sometime sharing with us around the table bits and pieces she’d found that she thought we’d enjoy. My father read the Bible on a nightly basis. They gave us money to buy books at school through Troll Magazine. But it wasn’t until I started hanging out with readers, folks who talked about the reading that they were doing, who invited me into the conversation and who weren’t grading me or forcing me to participate in the actual discussion but who afforded me the opportunity to participate on the periphery that I began to read like a wanna-be writer, and then I started writing, mostly copying/emulating the big names. And then I found my voice, which was the voice of deep South Texas, the voice of a Mexican American growing up on the border, on so many borders.

SB: Were you raised bilingual and are you raising your kids bilingual?

I was raised in a bilingual community: that is to say, I got Spanish in the home (my parents spoke only Spanish, and it wasn’t until years later that my dad learned English; nevertheless, we never spoke it in the home) and English in school. Odd, though, how my formal training in English didn’t start until kinder. I had to have gotten it somewhere else. TV, maybe? My older sister? I can’t recall. But I got a mastery of both early on.

And my wife is Swedish, so we are trying to raise our kids in a trilingual home. It’s very difficult because I don’t speak Swedish and my wife doesn’t speak Spanish, so we use English in the home, and Spanish becomes the language of Abuelo and Abuela when they call, and Swedish becomes the language of Mormor and Morfar when they call. It’s odd, though, how the boys, from a young, young age could distinguish between the two other languages.

The Giveaway

I hope you enjoyed reading our first installment of ReadMe as much as I enjoyed writing it… Now, as promised, we will be giving away a copy of Saldaña’s short mystery to one lucky reader. To win, please tell us below why you’d like to win and how you would “use” this particular book to raise your children bilingual.

Giveaway rules.

This giveaway ends at midnight EST on Sunday, July 26, 2009. Entries/Comments that do not follow the submission guidelines will be invalid and automatically deleted.  Sorry, just need to keep  it fair. Good luck to all!

One of the best things since the creation of SpanglishBaby has been the amount of stuff I have discovered related to anything bilingual and bi-cultural. Although there is not a whole lot out there, I have to admit I’ve been surprised about some of the things I’ve found.

As an avid reader, I’ve always complained about the lack of bilingual/Spanish children’s books in both bookstores and public libraries, but lately I’ve discoverd things are not as bad. So I present you with a list of 4 publishing houses, most of which are only dedicated to bilingual or Spanish children’s books. You can order most of their books through La Tiendita and if you can’t find them there, you can always go directly to their websites.

1) Children’s Book Press – “Founded in 1975, CBP is the only nonprofit independent publisher solely dedicated to first voice multicultural and bilingual children’s literature, by and about people from the Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander, African American, and Native American communities. Our books embody our commitment to diversity, literacy, and community.” I love what they’re all about. I reviewed one of their books here. That same book was recently chosen as an Honorable Mention at the 2009 International Latino Book Awards, as I wrote about here.

2) Piñata Books – “Founded in 1994, Piñata Books, an imprint of Arte Público Press, is dedicated to the publication of children’s and young adult literature focussing on U.S. Hispanic culture. With its bilingual picture books for children and its entertaining novels for young adults, Piñata Books has made giant strides in filling the void that exists in American publishing and literature: books that accurately reflect themes, characters and customs unique to U.S. Hispanic culture.” I’ll be writing more about this publishing house soon. For now, I just wanted to share with you that they’ve published some of Pat Mora’s awesome books.

3) Cinco Puntos Press – “With roots on the U.S./Mexico border, Cinco Puntos publishes great books which make a difference in the way you see the world.” I don’t know much about them, but I really like what they’ve published!

4) Groundwood Books - “Many of our books tell the stories of people whose voices are not always heard in this age of global publishing by media conglomerates. Books by the First Peoples of this hemisphere have always been a special interest, as have those of others who through circumstance have been marginalized and whose contribution to our society is not always visible. Since 1998 we have been publishing works by people of Latin American origin living in the Americas both in English and in Spanish under our Libros Tigrillo imprint.” I absolutely love folktales, and it looks like the one to the left is a pretty good compilation of some.

Antes de despedirme, I wanted to share something both Ana and I are very excited about: an upcoming new monthly series related to literacy, bilingualism and even a giveaway – who doesn’t like a giveaway, right? More details to come soon, I promise…

If you know of any publishing houses and/or authors of bilingual children´s books we welcome you to leave a link in the comments.

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