Hi friends,

I’d like to share some news about my books in this blog post, segmenting them into different sections so that you can scroll through easily and read whatever interests you.

1) Name the book characters 

As we’re progressing and heading toward publication, I’m working on the last parts of the book and taking the final decisions.

a) The title will remain “Summer with Grandpa” instead of the more fitting “Fish for Everyone” (we’ve been discussing these details in the readers’ FB group) because of the platform where the book is going to be published and distributed (Amazon, thinking of searches, keywords, and ad clicks).

b) There will be some minor changes in the text of the story that I’ve shared in the group (some words and phrases here and there).

c) This is a big one as you can have your kids’/nephews’/friends’ kids’ names featured !





Instead of keeping the same names for the two kids/main characters in all the different languages, I will localize them. ie Oliver and Mia in the English edition can become Olivier and Aurélie in the French edition. The names for the English edition have been decided (Oliver, Mia), but please help me choose names in the following languages which will be the first ones to be published by the end of spring. At least one name per language should also be recognized in other languages. Lots of names have been mentioned in the FB group but you can email me as well with your preferences (If one of your languages is missing from the list and you’d like to see the book published in that one as well, let me know and I’ll consider it for the future, depending on demand).

• Albanian
• Arabic
• Bosnian
• Croatian
• English
• French
• German
• Greek
• Hungarian
• Irish
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Norwegian
• Polish
• Portuguese BR
• Portuguese PT
• Romanian
• Russian
• Spanish
• Turkish
• Ukrainian
  
   

2) Video narrations in Hungarian

Two new videos with narrations of books of mine are now available on PEaCH‘s YouTube channel https://www.facebook.com/peacheuproject, this time in Hungarian! Big thanks go to my fellow PEaCH ambassadors Flóra Hatvani for the narrations and Jessica Paolillo for uploading the videos on YouTube.

Cousins Forever – Unokatestvérek mindörökre

Happiness Street – A boldogság utcája

3) Video narrations in English

More videos that I forgot to inform you about have been uploaded on Alos Storytime Youtube channel. These narrations are in English.

Cousins Forever 

Happiness Street 

Sunny’s Magical Headband

4) Thank you!

Thank you so much for taking the time to review the books; it was great to read a review about the quality of the translations cause lots of time and money is invested in assuring they are as flawless as possible. Also thank you for sending me photos of your children reading the books. They are written and published for them after all.

A mom sent me the following photos saying that she read “Nelly’s Box” at her daughter’s school and that the kids made their own boxes. Here’s Seileach’s box. Click here to download the PDF with activities you can do after reading this book.

That’s all for now, have a lovely end of the week!
Don’t forget to let me know your choices when it comes to the names of my new book characters; send me an email at liza @ maltamum.com or leave a comment below.

The post Name my new book characters, sneak peek of the illustrations, and more! first appeared on Maltamum.

Happy New Year everyone with a super cute photo that one of you sent me (thank you!), and the best wish meme (writer anon) I came across on FB.

I hope you’re doing well -or at least not terrible- and that the first two weeks and the back-to-school days have been OK. Here COVID is on the rise again with many infections around us and amongst the kids’ classmates, but as a family unit, we’re doing well so far. I know you must be super busy with work and family obligations so all the news down below is segmented per subject so you can skim through the content and read only the sections that interest you. If you’d like to get in touch afterward, I’d love to hear back from you.

1) Giveaway

During the holidays, I noticed that a language teacher who was not amongst my acquaintances, K. Wyatt Reguera, chose to feature my books on her Instagram. It was a lovely surprise, and spontaneously in order to thank her, I offered her as a gift one of my books and one for her followers. You can read more and participate in this book giveaway till Sunday the 23rd of January here. Good luck!

2) Wonderful memories and excited about 2022 

Two years ago, and right before the pandemic started, “Where am I from?” was just about to get published, and I was planning my “back home” trip to Malta for the book launch. This post came up as a memory reminder on FB with the artist Platon and his last graffiti painted for this book. A fun -or not so fun- fact is that all my published books came out during the pandemic! Also, it is during the pandemic, now in 2022, that I’m taking the leap of faith and will try to make it work as a full-time writer. Things have been going great on that front, and over 1,800 books found a forever home in a child’s library in December only!

3) University of Liverpool 2022 Alumni Award nomination

Another lovely surprise to wake up to yesterday was this one. An old classmate of mine nominated me this year, and tagged me in a private uni group, for the University of Liverpool 2022 Alumni Award. I had no idea there was such an award, and as it’s been several years since I graduated -it must have been 2011 or 2012- so you can imagine how totally unexpected this is. Another fun fact, this time about languages, I studied in French for my first degree and in English for my second. Greek is my native language, and Norwegian is my husband’s native one and our children’s strongest.

4) Together They Blossomed coming very soon in bilingual editions


I’m getting ready now for the experiment I mentioned a while back, to translate and publish “Together They Blossomed” as a bilingual book for adults, a book to gift to the one we love in their native/emotional language + English. I can’t wait to share with you all the English-French, English-Spanish, English-Italian, and English-Greek editions in the coming days. If it goes well, I will consider more languages. Anyone here who might want to read it in any of these language combos once the files are ready and before publication? The French one is ready.

Here’s an old video I received from Sandra Rogers Photography when she opened the box with her English edition printed copies . Click here to watch it.

5) Happiness Street is now available in English-Danish

You can find it on all Amazon stores. Here‘s the US one.

6) More editions in Greek

“Happiness Street” and “Cousins Forever” are now available in Greek-English, Greek-French, Greek-Swedish, Greek-Portuguese, Greek-Spanish, Greek-German, Greek-Dutch, and Greek-Italian (more language combinations are available upon request). You can find them on all Amazon stores, and exclusively via the bookstore Paper Kittens FB page / eshop in Greece.

7) New children’s book “Sunny’s Magical Headband” 

No news yet when it comes to its publication. As mentioned earlier, publishing books during the pandemic can be a bit unpredictable, and it does present some obstacles, especially for traditional publishing. I’ll let you know as soon as I know more. This is a photo from the early stages of book production when the artist Eva Rodríguez was painting with traditional means all the different illustrations. This is a book I love dearly and I hope it will go in print and be shared with you all very soon. It will be published by Faraxa Publishing in Malta, EU.

8) Free eBooks every 1st of the month throughout 2022. Yay or Nay?

I guess you remember the promotion I put together last year that lasted 6 months where on the 1st of each month readers could download any of my eBooks + eBooks from many other authors for free? I’m considering doing the same this year as well, but just myself this time, and offer all of the eBook editions of my independently published books for free every 1st of the month. What do you think? Should I go ahead? I’ll be deciding during this week.

For the ones who are new here and have no idea about who I am and/or look like, here’s a recent photo that was taken by our 5-year-old daughter, who loves taking photos, during our Christmas holiday in Gran Canaria, Spain :). 

And here’s the cutest snowman ever that the kids made once we came back to Norway… Since then we’ve had tons of snow again which has now alost completely melted.

Till next time, take care.

//Elisavet (aka Liza)

The post Book giveaway till the end of the week, plus other news first appeared on Maltamum.

Hi friends,

I hope you’re all doing great. For the ones that the summer holidays are over and the kids are back to school, I hope that you’ve recharged your batteries and that this scholastic year things are smoother. In Norway, the pandemic measures have been lifted – the authorities have officially classified Covid as a non-threat, and we’re currently in Greece for a late “summer holiday”. 

We’re super happy to see our family and friends again after a year, some of them two years, and even more so cause my sister Charikleia Arkolaki is also traveling from her country of residence to meet us all and celebrate my daughter’s birthday :). For the ones that don’t know this, Charikleia is the amazing artist behind the books Happiness Street and Cousins Forever, and not only she’s artistically skilled and creative, but she also happens to be a data scientist by profession – I’m totally in awe of the way her brain works, combining purely analytical and mathematical skills with an artistic and creative mind.

NEW BOOKS + FREE EBOOKS CAMPAIGN

In other news, I’m happy to announce that Happiness Street is now available in Chinese-English and Filipino/Tagalog-English, and Cousins Forever in Filipino/Tagalog-English. In the next couple of days, Happiness Street will also be published in Japanese-English. You can download the eBooks for free in any of the 30+ currently available languages on the 1st of October on Amazon as part of this campaign, which ends this month. 

The next bilingual editions that I’m going to work on are English plus Thai, Arabic, Hindi, Hebrew, Indonesian, Bulgarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian, Slovenian. I’m also considering combining existing translations and publish the books ie in German-Turkish, French-Greek, Italian-Albanian, etc. If your language(s) is(are) missing from the list and you’re interested in these books, please hit reply and send me an email. I’d love to hear from you.

NEW PEaCH EDUCATORS GUIDEBOOK + AMBASSADORS + ONLINE SUMMIT

a)How to support multilingual children is the brand new guidebook for educators, available in English, French, and German, and Italian and Spanish to follow soon. You can download it for free here. 

b) 2nd call for PEaCH volunteer ambassadors: If you’re passionate about languages, raising children to speak their EU home languages, and have a bit of spare time, please apply and come join us. I’m also a volunteer ambassador of this project. More details here.

c) PEaCH summit on raising bilingual children. It’s a free, online event for anyone interested in the topic of bilingual children. Over four evenings (CET time zone), speakers and experts will host sessions on various aspects of bilingual upbringing. Register here.

CREATIVE YOUNG BILINGUALS

Mom Elina sent me this sweet photo with the paintings her son created right after reading Happiness Street: “We just received our bilingual book happiness street !! Thank you so much Elisavet Arkolaki!! A book with a sweet feeling of memories and a promise to return. Iason was inspired to paint too! Here are his drawings of the sea, the sand and hill, the vase with the flowers and the fruits .”

If you also have any photos and feedback to share after having read any of my books, please let me know. It matters :).

A LOVELY MEMORY REMINDER IN MY NEWSFEED

Did you know on the 26th of September we celebrate the European Day of Languages? This year, I enjoyed the company of friends and family, speaking and being fully immersed in my home language which is a rarity during this time of the year. 

In 2018, –thank you Facebook!– shortly after the successful Kickstarter campaign to fund and create the street art illustrated book Where am I from? with Platon and Joanne Micallef from Faraxa Publishing, I was invited by one of our sponsors, Aase Wivestad, the Libraries Counsellor of the Vestfold Municipality in Norway, to talk about my experience raising multilingual and multicultural children, and the creative journey behind this book on the 26th of September of that year. Our son was at school, but our daughter who was still pretty much attached to mummy came along with my husband and mum who was visiting us at that time .

Massive thank you, again, to all of you who supported me in this author journey at the very beginning. I’m on my way now to be a full-time author, the book sales are going great, and I wouldn’t have made it if I hadn’t received so much love and support in the early days which boosted my confidence.

ON BEING IN GREECE & INTERNATIONAL TRANSLATION DAY

Being in Greece on holidays also means that I have access to my very first library -lots of books, comic books, magazines, etc dating from when I first started reading till I left my parents’ place- . This book brought memories of the very first lecture I attended at university, back in 2000! The course was about linguistics, and the book’s title is ‘Modern Greek Language; studies about language, literature, and style’. 

I remember that this was the very first time I realized that a language is truly alive, it changes and evolves constantly. That the spoken language is more fluid than the written one, the rules can be bent, and that the way any given person speaks is ‘correct’, provided both the transmitter of the message and the receiver perfectly understand each other. 

It was also during this linguistics course that I realized how different languages truly are since they can have words that cannot be accurately translated from one language to another, words that came to exist because of different environments, needs, and experiences of people who live in different countries. In that first lecture, the professor talked to us about snow as an example, and how in Greek we have one word for it whereas in northern places and populations there can be several different ones representing different types of snow. 

Today is, by the way, International Translation Day! If there are any translators in here reading this, happy translation day :)!

That’s all for now, and thank you for reading.
I know it’s been a long one but I had a lot to share :).

Love, Liza.

The post Free eBooks (last 24h – 1st of October!), new PEaCH educators’ guidebook + other news! first appeared on Maltamum.

Hello lovely people :),

I hope this email finds you well. It looks like there won’t be any traveling outside of Norway for us this summer as we’re waiting to get vaccinated, so I’m going to accept that our reunion with family and friends outside of this country will need to be further postponed. I decided I’m going to try and focus on the positive, just like the kids do in my book “Cousins Forever“, so here’s something really beautiful about life in Horten in the summer.

Focus on the positive

The days are very long during the summer season, and the nights are not pitch black, more like twilight. I love daylight, and this gives us the opportunity to spend lots of time outdoors and soak in the sun when it’s sunny. The weather can be unstable in this country, with lots of sun, and rain, even within the same day, and as a result, the summers are always green, full of blossoms and blooming flowers. Here’s my absolute favorite rose tree of this season. 

National Book Prize Malta 

The longlist for the National Book Prize (adults) and Terramaxka Prize 2021 (children’s books) in Malta has been announced, and “Where am I from?” which was published in Malta by Faraxa Publishing stands a chance to win in the category “Original works: books for children (ages 0-7)” for the Terramaxka 2021: books published in 2020. The shortlist of both the Terramaxka and National Book Prize titles will be announced at the beginning of August 2021. Wish us luck. We need it !!!! 

Here‘s the long list.
Behind the scenes photos of the murals.
The hardcover is currently heavily discounted at 9.50 euro on the publisher’s website.

This was the very first photo taken of this project. It was quite a challenge to create this book, especially for Platon, the street artist who painted all the murals.

New book – your kids/students are invited to participate!

As in “Cousins Forever“, I would love to include the first names of the children on the last page + photos of their very own creations. Are you in?

This is what I’d like us to do this time:

Give your child(ren) an empty box (shoebox, carton box, big or small, any sort of box that you might have at home), colors/stickers/ribbons to decorate it -IF they’d like to decorate it-, and then ask them to fill it in during the next couple of days with their favorite items and/or whatever grabs their interests and attention, from sticks and petals to scraps of paper, or to… nothing at all. The purpose of this activity is to let their personalities and interests shine since each box is going to be unique, as is every kid . 

These photos will also inspire me during the writing process, as one of the things I would like kids to see through this book is how different we all see, experience, understand, process and enjoy the very same world around us, and that each unique perspective is equally valid, to be appreciated and respected. It’s fun, colorful, and interesting to see how one kid might be more inclined towards music, another one might make sense of the world via patterns, a third one might be physical and express herself through sports. What if our children recognize this early on, work on their strengths since early childhood, and help their classmates do the same?

Join the conversation in my FB readers’ group where we discuss all the details, or hit reply and let me know via email if you’d like to participate in this book project.

Thank you so much – can’t wait to get fully started working on this!  

Free ebooks

Our collaborative 6-month long promo is still on, and you can download for free all the books listed here, on the 1st of each month till October. The page is packed with books so just give it some time to load, and if you’re not using amazon.com for eBooks, search for the titles that grabbed your interest at your local Amazon store. My children’s books are available in 18 languages in total, including English.

Here’s a lovely review of the Spanish edition of “Happiness Street“, which is part of this bundle, by Leanna Guillen Mora from All Done Monkey and the founder of Multicultural Kid Blogs. 

“Happiness Street – Calle Felicidad is a lovely picture book that celebrates summer and family. In it, a child looks back on her summer at grandmother’s house by the beach. That magical place truly is “happiness street,” as the children have named it. The paintings of the book are gorgeous. The bilingual version is a great opportunity to practice colors in Spanish! The story concludes when Mother comes to take the children back home, and they experience the bittersweet emotions that come with the end of vacation, though it is tempered by the promise of next summer on Happiness Street. A lovely way to celebrate the transition from vacation.”

And here’s what the students of Maria Lappas, Greek language teacher at @The Olive Tree Greek Education and Cultural Center in the USA did after reading the bilingual English-Greek edition of the same book – the kids painted their very own summer memories, practiced writing them in Greek, and had lots of fun at their language school 

. Have your kids or students been inspired to be creative in any form after reading any of my books? I’d love to see more photos 

. The amazing, real watercolor paintings featured both in “Happiness Street” and “Cousins Forever” are by Charikleia Arkolaki. Have I told you she’s my sister?

If the school year ends very soon in your part of the world, I wish your children and yourself a lovely summer holiday, soon.

Take care and talk to you soon,
Liza.

The post National Book Prize Malta, be part of the new book, and other news :) first appeared on Maltamum.

Hi friends,

How are you? We just came back from a short holiday within the country. It was lovely, and we’ve been blessed with nice weather, something which is never to be taken for granted in Norway. The kids got to swim in a lake, a river, the sea, and got to taste the very first wild strawberries of the year! I can swear, they smell a bit like vanilla :).

Other than that, many things have happened with my books during the last few weeks, and I am dying to share the news with you as they keep on reaching more kids and a wider audience.

WHERE AM I FROM? – A “MUST-READ”!

Where am I from? has been selected by the editorial team of Culturs, The Global Multicultural Magazine, as a “must-read”! I had to pinch myself when I saw a full page dedicated to it in their latest issue. This “black” issue is so important, so insightful, and with just 29 dollars you can get a yearly digital subscription. You will also find an exclusive interview with the amazing Robin Diangelo, author of the international best-seller White Fragility!

VIDEO INTERVIEW + ME READING WHERE AM I FROM?

 A bit over a month ago I did something which is 100% outside my comfort zone. I gave a short interview to Cary Carrington on camera (that’s probably the 3rd time in my whole life that I talk on camera), and read Where am I from? for The Read with Carylee Show (USA). You can watch the video and follow her YouTube channel here.  I hope your kids will enjoy this while they flip over the pages of their own copy .

FRONT PAGE FEATURE ON THE NEWSPAPER THE NATIONAL HERALD

That was another pleasant surprise. I’m so humbled, so thrilled, to have my work featured on the front page of the world’s largest English edition, Greek newspaper, The National Herald, and inaugurate a new column about contemporary writers of Greek descent. The print version was distributed in North America last month, and you can now read the online version here. 

HAPPINESS STREET – STILL A No.1 NEW RELEASE

This book has also spoken to many of you and your children. I am so grateful <3. It’s thanks to you that Happiness Street is still a “No.1 new release” on Amazon; a slow-paced summer story illustrated with watercolor paintings by my sister Charikleia Arkolaki. Reviews like this one, always make me do a couple of happy dances at home. Do keep on sharing your honest feedback. It helps me to keep on going. 

English paperback/eBook – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08B7G43P1/
Greek eBook https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08B1PJWBN/
Bilingual English-Greek paperback/Ebook https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08B1LHZWP/

FROM THE EXPERTS – NEW PROJECT RAISING MULTILINGUALS LIVE

Dr. Ute Limacher-Riebold and Rita Rosenback are two of the expert contributors in the guidebook I curated, How to Raise Confident Multicultural Children, and Raising Multilinguals LIVE is their brand new project, together with Tetsu Yung. Raising Multilinguals LIVE (RML) is a new live interview series aimed at spreading expert information on raising bilingual and multilingual children. 

FACEBOOK HIGHLIGHT

I really enjoyed reading this one: “Around the world, media excels at this. Give a person the same story over and over and they will soon believe it without question. From Iran to the United States this is a problem in our world. Critical thinking and the nuances of human behavior are thrown out the window while a single story prevails. “The problem with stereotypes is not that they are incorrect, but that they are incomplete. No one is a single story.”” – Marilyn Gardner. Read it in full here. 

Do you know someone who might be interested in my work? If yes, please forward them this link <3. 

I wish you a lovely weekend ahead.

With my warmest regards,
//Elisavet Arkolaki

The post International recognition, video interview, read aloud, a new project by experts! first appeared on Maltamum.

Hi friends,

Here things have resumed some sort of normality. The kids go to school and kindergarten, we get uninterrupted hours of work at our home office, football training is taking place again outdoors with small groups of kids, and social distancing practices. But in about 2 weeks, we reach the end of this scholastic year, and it’s rather unlikely that we will travel and see our family and friends in Greece. And that hurts. 

At the same time, it got me thinking of how immigration must have felt back in the days, this unfathomable pain of leaving everyone and everything you’ve ever loved behind forever. Like the ancestors of many of us did, who boarded a ship, never to be seen or heard of again.

Nowadays, with the click of a button, we can video chat with all our favorite people in the whole wide world. This might not replace the human touch, a hug, and a kiss, but it is real and it is comforting. I find myself video chatting more often these days, even if it’s just for 1′ to say hi, I’m thinking of you. 

I’m also working on a children’s story manuscript with the working title “Where is Home?”, and I’m constantly thinking of the different interpretations of the concept “home”. What does home mean to you? And if you asked your children, what reply would they give you? Please hit “Reply” and let me know.

YOU CAN USE WHERE AM I FROM? FOR VIRTUAL STORYTIME
I’ve had teachers and parents reach out to me asking if they can use Where am I from? for virtual storytime and virtual lessons. The answer is, Yes! Just tag me, please or send me a link :). I hope you will also find the accompanying lesson plan useful. Thank you to all of the educators who support our children virtually, I appreciate you. The book can be purchased directly via the publisher here.

FREE BOOKS FOR KIDS ABOUT THE PANDEMIC, MANY LANGUAGES & AGES
Here’s a compilation of free books in several languages about the pandemic with good storylines and beautiful artwork. 
Be a coronavirus fighter! (English, Chinese, Norwegian, Italian, Russian, German, French, Dutch, Indonesian, Danish, Turkish, Korean, Greek -I proofread the Greek translation-)  
Why we stay at home – This book is for free, but you must register. I highly recommend it. 
Staying Home with Sally Nicholls
Kelly Stays Home: The Science of Coronavirus by Lauren Block MD MPH and Adam Block PhD, Illustrated by Alex Brissenden for big kids and for little kids.
My Hero is You, Storybook for Children on COVID-19 by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Reference Group on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings (World Health Organization)
Winnie and Wilbur Stay at Home (online)
Coronavirus. A book for children written by Elizabeth Jenner, Kate Wilson, Nia Roberts & illustrated by Axel Scheffler
What’s Going on in the World?
The Story of Oyster and Butterfly: The Coronavirus and Me by Ana M. Gomez
Mission: Stay at Home

INTERVIEW
A while back I got interviewed by Maria Adcock, an inspirational writer, and blogger. She asked some interesting questions like “In our world today, there is much divisiveness pertaining to race. What factors do you think are contributing to the growth in divisive rhetoric?“. Now, more than ever, with all these horrible news going around the world, we need to talk to our children about race, ethnicities, and privilege. 

FROM THE ARCHIVES
During the last couple of European winters, we’ve been spending months at a time in Koh Lanta, Thailand. This is where I got the chance to meet and interview Caroline Engvall. Caroline is a journalist, lecturer and best-selling author who has written several crime novels in Swedish dealing with the very difficult and poignant topics of children’s sex trade, domestic and international trafficking. Caroline makes a real difference in the fight against children’s sexual abuse. She runs several projects that help children who are exposed to online crimes, including the publication of educational materials, help websites, podcasts, and television documentaries. Read the interview and you will find lots of helpful advice on how to keep our children safe online.

FACEBOOK HIGHLIGHT 
The video “The amazing dance of nature” is so soothing and inspiring, reminding us that everything grows and flourishes at its own pace <3.  

I wish you a lovely weekend ahead, and I look forward to hearing from you.

With my warmest regards,
//Elisavet Arkolaki

The post Many eBooks to download, permission to use Where am I from? and more! first appeared on Maltamum.

Dear friends,

I hope you’re keeping safe and coping with the different new routines that have been in place all around the world. Here in Norway, the kids are back to school, and they’ve started socializing with a few friends after school as well. We’ve had 0 cases in our little town for two weeks now and people are feeling more and more relaxed. How are things where you live? 

FREE JOURNAL FOR KIDS IN MANY LANGUAGES
My pandemic journal is a lovely initiative by Multicultural Kid Blogs, a blog which is maintained by a group of mum-bloggers from around the world, and of which I am a part of. This free printable is available in several languages (English, Spanish, Swedish, Chinese, and many more) and I translated it to Greek.

BOOK GIVEAWAY
My small Facebook page, Maltamum, which I started in 2013 just before my first kid was born, has now exceeded 5,000 followers. In collaboration with my publisher Faraxa Publishing, we are giving away 1 copy of Where am I from?, and 1 copy of How to Raise Confident Multicultural Children. Click here to enter the draw; it ends on Monday 18 May 10:00 CET. All the best of luck :). 

A REVIEW BY A BOOK SNOB, A KID & A BOREDPANDA FEATURE
In other news, I got this feature accepted and published at Bored Panda where you can see photos of the street art before it turned into illustrations. A couple of pictures capture what took about 1 1/2 years to create <3.

I also received two of the most amazing reviews ever that made my heart swell with happiness; I must admit I might have shed a tear or two. You see, one of the kids represented in the book wrote me a book review! And what he describes in there is quite accurate, as the background story truly is that many of these kids were born in Malta, and their parents do come from many different countries.

The other one is a 5-star review on Amazon from someone nicknamed ”Book Snob” which you can read here. 

FROM THE ARCHIVES
A while back I discovered a lovely children’s book at our local library, titled My Two Blankets. It was so good that I felt the need to review it on my blog. 

ON THE WEB 
A profoundly, thought-provoking read, and one of the best pieces I’ve read lately online titled Fuck the Bread. The Bread Is Over. by Sabrina Orah Mark.

FACEBOOK HIGHLIGHT
In this difficult time, Multicultural Kid Blogs members, its family, and friends want to spread a message of kindness to all. A message of kindness in different languages from around the world. 

Is there anything you feel is worth sharing on my blog and newsletter? If yes, please hit “reply”. I’d love to hear from you.

I wish you a lovely week ahead and remember to enter the giveaway.

Take care and all the best of luck :)!

//Elisavet Arkolaki

The post A Book Snob review, a giveaway, a printable journal, and more! first appeared on Maltamum.

Dear friends,

I wish that you, your family, and friends are all healthy and safe. The kindergartens and primary schools (1st-4th grade) are going to open here in Norway on Monday and both my kids will have their first day ‘back to school’. They’re super excited and I really hope everything will be OK. At least the sun is shining bright the last couple of days and we can feel grateful for the nice weather. How are things in your part of the world and how are the kids responding to the current situation? If you have anything funny and positive to share, please send me your thoughts. I would love to spread joyful messages and pictures with our community in the newsletter/blog/social media (they can be shared as anon).

INTERVIEW
A couple of days ago I was approached by Niki from Raising A Legacy who raises mixed-race children, to discuss multiculturalism, minority cultures, bilingualism, and much more. You can read the interview here.

FROM THE ARCHIVES
Here’s a blog post I wrote a while back, titled My husband speaks a language I don’t understand with our children and it’s OK.

FROM THE WEB 
An interesting article about language mixing by Dr. Shana Poplack.

FREE ZOOM MEETING MEET THE EXPERT
Many families like ours face some very particular challenges. One of them is raising bi- or multilingual children. Delftmama invited Dr. Ute Limacher-Riebold for a Q&A session on Tuesday, 28 April 2020 at 19:00 CET. You can send her questions in advance at info@UtesInternationalLounge.com with the subject: DelftMama online event and she will address them during the live event.

FACEBOOK GROUP HIGHLIGHT
Some beautiful pictures from around the world during the lockdown in the group View from my window.

GRANDPARENTS GETTING CREATIVE

-Rita Rosenback from Multilingual Parenting creates daily “Find it!” pictures for her 4-year-old grandson like the one seen here where he needs to find Iron Man. Sometimes he needs a bit of help, so then he sends her a voice message asking for hints, which she responds to with a voice message.

-My father recorded himself on video narrating my personal childhood fairytale of his to share with his grandkids at bedtime.

-Claire Annette Noland, a children’s librarian, reading specialist, and author, buys and reads children’s books to her grandkids live on camera in an attempt to shorten the distance between USA and Nicaragua. Here you can see her reading to them Where am I from? She also wrote a book review here.

WHERE AM I FROM? – 40% DISCOUNT

Thank you for sharing photos with your children reading the book, it warms my heart <3. My publisher is semi-operating during the pandemic and just announced a 40% discount offer on all their titles till the end of May. Simply add the coupon code SPRING at checkout (do expect postage delays outside of Malta). You might also be able to request a signed copy – I believe there are a few left in stock. You can order it here.

HELP NEEDED
If you’ve already purchased/read Where am I from? and How to Raise Confident Multicultural Children, I’d like to say THANK YOU! I know that my feelings should not be involved in this, but a particular someone, who has been bullying online one of the guide’s contributors for quite a while, left several 1-star reviews from different fake profiles on Goodreads and 1 on Amazon in an attempt to cause damage. I’ve reported all of them, the majority got removed, but the Amazon.co.uk one remains. Can you help me, please? If you found value in any of my books, I’d be so grateful if you’d help make the remaining 1-star reviews from this guy have less of an impact. Kindly locate my books on any of the Amazon websites where you have an account (.com, .de, .co.uk, etc. – you must have spent a min. of 50 USD within the last year to be eligible to leave reviews), and on Goodreads – Where am I from?, How to Raise Confident Multicultural Children and share your honest review. If you don’t have an account on any of these, you can also send it to me via email. I appreciate it.

LIGHT FORM OF EXERCISE 
I am not very sporty, and quite busy these days as so many of us. If you’re looking for some short, simple, slow-paced walking exercises to do at home, I found the “Walk at home” Youtube videos very helpful. 

WE ARE NOT ALL IN THE SAME BOAT
I’d like to close this newsletter with these lovely thoughts by an anon writer. 

“I heard that we are all in the same boat, but it’s not like that. We are in the same storm, but not in the same boat. Your ship could be shipwrecked and mine might not be. Or vice versa.

For some, quarantine is optimal. A moment of reflection, of re-connection, easy in flip flops, with a cocktail or coffee. For others, this is a desperate financial & family crisis.

For some that live alone, they’re facing endless loneliness. While for others it is peace, rest & time with their mother, father, sons & daughters.
With the $600 weekly increase in unemployment, some are bringing in more money to their households than they were working. Others are working more hours for less money due to pay cuts or loss in sales.
Some families of 4 just received $3400 from the stimulus while other families of 4 saw $0.

Some were concerned about getting a certain candy for Easter while others were concerned if there would be enough bread, milk, and eggs for the weekend.

Some want to go back to work because they don’t qualify for unemployment and are running out of money. Others want to kill those who break the quarantine.

Some are home spending 2-3 hours/day helping their child with online schooling while others are spending 2-3 hours/day to educate their children on top of a 10-12 hour workday.

Some have experienced the near-death of the virus, some have already lost someone from it and some are not sure if their loved ones are going to make it. Others don’t believe this is a big deal.

Some have faith in God and expect miracles during this 2020. Others say the worst is yet to come.

So, friends, we are not in the same boat. We are going through a time when our perceptions and needs are completely different.

Each of us will emerge, in our own way, from this storm. It is very important to see beyond what is seen at first glance. Not just looking, actually seeing.

We are all on different ships during this storm experiencing a very different journey.”

Stay safe, keep reading.

I wish you a lovely rest of the day and am looking forward to hearing from you.

With my warmest regards,
//Elisavet Arkolaki

The post News and tips for multilingual families including a meet the expert session first appeared on Maltamum.

I am so excited to participate in this year’s Read Around the World Summer Reading Series hosted by Multicultural Kid Blogs. Together with a group of like-minded bloggers, each one of us has chosen a book with diverse characters to showcase and review on our respective blogs. This summer we’re staying in Norway but we can still travel to tons of places with our imagination.

As Leanna writes on MKB’s website “Summer reading with children is the perfect opportunity to travel the world through books! The flexibility of school vacations makes summer a great time to explore the world together through diverse literature. Diverse children’s books can help provide “windows and mirrors” for children. That is, diverse stories provide windows into other ways of life, by teaching about other cultures, and mirrors of their own lives, as underrepresented groups are able to see themselves reflected in stories.”

My pick for this year is My Two Blankets by the talented writer Irena Kobald and illustrator Freya Blackwood. It was originally published in English by an Australian publisher but is now translated in over 20 languages and I can see why. My Two Blankets might well be my favorite picture book of the year; an adorable, universal story of immigration and friendship.

I found a lovely review on Amazon and I don’t feel I could describe this book in a better way:

‘In this heart-warming tale, Irena Kobald has taken the tried and true story of a new kid on the block and created a fresh and original multicultural story of Cartwheel who moves from Sudan to Australia. In addition, the combination of warm watercolors and oils provides an inviting atmosphere.

An immigrant herself to Australia, author Irena Kobald is not a stranger to how lost and lonely one feels in a new land. In addition, being a teacher of aboriginal children in the Australian outback communities, most of whom use English as a fifth language, Kobald is also well-acquainted with how freakish one feels when surrounded by those speaking unfamiliar languages.

No doubt drawing on those feelings, as well as being inspired by a friendship that developed between her daughter and a Sudanese girl, Kobald has written an endearing story that has been enriched by the use of a metaphor.

When Cartwheel arrives in her strange new country, she finds security in a metaphorical blanket made up of her own words and the memories of her old world. Later, after a girl in a park smiles and waves at her, Cartwheel weaves the new words given to her into a second blanket of origami shapes. This is the perfect format for turning a tried and true story into a fresh and original one that will encourage young and old alike to think about immigrants and friendship.

Just as arresting is the artwork, which successfully depicts the essence of Cartwheel’s emotions. Illustrations of Cartwheel and her blanket are always the colors of brown and orange and gold, as well as being in oil. The girl in the park and her origami words are always blue and green and pink and yellow, as well as being in watercolor.

In addition, the illustrator Freya Blackwood notes that when Cartwheel explored her new home, the experience of no one speaking like her, felt like a cold waterfall of strange sounds, and Blackwood originally intended this ‘waterfall’ to be thick with symbols that represented words. However, in her drafts, she just showed this as a messy scrawl, and the scrawl seemed to work better than lots of symbols. Another reviewer also observed that the use of pigeons in the park and origami-shaped birds reminded her of freedom. As you can see, the artwork itself provides a rich experience too.

Given that diversity is at the heart of this sweet tale, I initially felt taken back by the fact that the poetic text never directly states which country Cartweel came from or moved to. The attire of both Cartwheel and her mom might suggest Africa as their homeland, as might the images in Cartwheel’s metaphorical blanket. We’re also told that war came to Cartwheel’s country. Beyond these clues, however, the only reason I know the story takes place in Sudan is that this country is specified in the reviews.

As for where Cartwheel moved to, the buildings and mode of transportation suggest a city. No location is given, however, not even of a region or country. Critics aren’t of any help here either. While I presumed Australia, given that this is where both author and illustrator live, the reality is we’re never told. At first, I thought this omission a mistake, because I would have enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about these landscapes. Upon further reflection, I decided that the omission is genius. As a universal story of refugees and friendship, My Two Blankets is all the more accessible to everyone.

Besides being a simply beautiful story, My Two Blankets also lends itself to educational opportunities. Teachers might talk about the use of metaphor. Furthermore, for those classrooms with the time, students could create their own metaphorical blankets of a time when they moved from one place to another. My Two Blankets is a delightful import from Australia that should find a treasured spot on your shelves.’

You can connect with Irena and Freya on their respective Facebook pages. 

To see the complete book list recommendation by the MKB bloggers, click here. 

The post Picture Book Review – My Two Blankets first appeared on Maltamum.

“The most important thing that parents can do is talk and read to their children. During the toddler and preschool years, it is critical to provide children with different language and reading experiences.” – G. Reid Lyon

I stumbled upon this article about Finland, the world’s most literate nation, and their brand new library in Helsinki, which bends the concept of what we expect a public library to be. ‘In Helsinki – home to almost 650,000 people – there are 36 public libraries. “Libraries are the second-highest rated public service in Helsinki; the number one is drinking water,” explains Helsinki’s executive director of culture Tommi Laitio. It is enshrined in law that every Finnish municipality must have a public library, and as a result, there are 853 across the country.’

In the city I am now local, Horten in Norway, the attitude is similar. The public library is a focal point to our community. It is a place to socialize, with a small cafe-restaurant in its premises, sewing machines, lots of events and happenings, it is free of charge, and one can borrow as many books as they wish for at a time. There’s also a whole floor dedicated to the children, decorated with beautiful, colorful, inviting graffiti. There are toys and books in abundance, chill out corners with comfy sofas, coloring pages and pencils, computers, a designated area to sit down and enjoy a lunch with the little ones. It’s a place that even the local schools visit often, starting with the pre-schoolers.

Books matter. Reading for pleasure, and not because we have to, matters. It promotes literacy, it shapes our identity in a positive way, it shapes our future as societies. And we need to start early, at home.

If we look into the science of things, it has been proven that between conception and age three, a child’s brain undergoes an impressive amount of change. It doubles in size in the first year, and by age three it has reached 80% of its adult volume. By age 5, the foundation that shapes a child’s future health, happiness and growth have been laid. A child will never learn throughout her life as quickly as she does now.

There are so many studies and so much research all pointing to the direction that reading to our children from very early on, telling them stories, is paramount for their development. Literature and literacy are the direct product of a human need to understand the world by the simple act of telling stories. Humans have always been coming up with all sorts of stories, fables, and myths in order to better understand the people around them and make sense of the world. This is how the human race survived, lived, and evolved.

A brilliant way to help our children interiorize a strong sense of identity is by sharing traditional stories; the ones that span generations. Folklore stories and myths from our countries of origin keep the culture alive and help them connect with their roots, even when living outside the community. They can help them grow closer to their past and incorporate elements of tenderness and pride in their identity.

Also, sharing stories from cultures that aren’t their own can help them to better understand friends and classmates. Then, there are these other stories, the ones you can recite yourself, and which can be told at the most diverse moments of the day and not just before bedtime. As parents, we can use every opportunity we have to share with our child invented stories, heard stories, stories we’ve read together.

I remember growing up listening to my father telling us three stories he had come up with himself, always the same, night and night again during our dinner time. This storytelling time was so special to us that we purposefully delayed finishing our food. We never got tired of them. These very same stories are now passed on to my children.

Books are also a powerful tool for our children, helping them to make sense of their homes, communities, the world at large. Literature provides their first window to a world beyond their five senses, a world that can be magically entered by the simple act of words and illustrations putting in motion the wheels of the internal mechanism called imagination. This is how they grow and this is how they develop into individuals who can think for themselves.

There are so many books out there to choose from and as parents, it is our responsibility to present to our young ones fun stories with beautiful artwork that sparkle their curiosity and inspire them. For cross-cultural children, like mine, in particular, it can be very beneficial to pick up books with diverse characters with whom they can relate to.

It is also advisable when the children start showing specific interests, to let them choose books on their own. One of our favorite family outings, for instance, is Saturday morning visits to the local library I mentioned earlier. This is an inexpensive way to introduce our kids to a variety of books before deciding which ones they really love and would like to own.

When it comes to which books are best, that I don’t know. Kids have their own personalities and their interests change as they grow. What I can tell you though is that the best books will grow with your child.  Let’s say you buy a book now​ for your 5-year-old to read to him. If it becomes a favorite, at 6 he will be reciting the words to you and by 8 he will enjoy reading it on his own, all curled up somewhere cozy at home.

With love, affection, encouragement and mental stimulation, nutritious meals and good health care, any child will most certainly thrive. These pillars form a solid foundation to develop a sense of trust and security, that turns into confidence as they grow.

Books, reading stories for pleasure, matter.

As always,

Love, Liza.

The post Reading books for pleasure enables our children to thrive first appeared on Maltamum.