I just learned about the Lusophone Calendar Art Contest for Kids, which was published on the Vice-Consulate of Portugal in Providence website and The Herald News! It’s such an honor that my book “Summer with Grandpa” in European Portuguese (there’s another edition in Brazilian Portuguese) has been selected for this purpose. I truly hope it will inspire kids and that they’ll have a great time reading in Portuguese and painting. 300 calendars featuring the winners’ paintings will be printed.

The watercolor artist is Svitlana Holovchenko, the European Portuguese translator is André Morgado, and the proofreader is Ana Pereira.

Links:
https://providence.consuladoportugal.mne.gov.pt/en/the-consulate/news/2025-lusophone-calendar-art-contest

https://providence.consuladoportugal.mne.gov.pt/images/iplws_2025_calendar_contest_rules-rdx.pdf

https://eu.heraldnews.com/story/news/local/ojornal/2025/02/27/portuguese-studies-institute-rhode-island-college-bilingual-lusophone-calendar-art-contest-returns/80708128007/

https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Art-Calendar-Contest-is-back-.html?soid=1103000147407&aid=kRVbsdfTn4c

The Lusophone Calendar Art Contest is back. Seeking entries from K-12th graders.

Organized by the Institute for Portuguese and Lusophone World Studies (IPLWS) at Rhode Island College in collaboration with the Day of Portugal and Portuguese Heritage in RI, Inc., the contest is open to students aged 5 to 18 who wish to submit their drawings to be featured in a 2026 bilingual calendar.

“We have returned by teacher demand,” said Dr. Silvia Oliveira, the Director of RIC’s Institute for Portuguese and Lusophone World Studies. “Since 2004, over 4,000 students have participated in this activity.”

In its 18th edition, the contest is open to students enrolled in Portuguese language and culture classes in public, private or charter schools or community Portuguese schools.

“There is no better way to learn a language than by learning the culture, the stories, the places, the traditions throughout the ages, and the modern times,” said Dr. Oliveira.

The goal is to encourage students to develop an understanding of Lusophone cultures and heritage by learning about their people, stories, history, geography and art through artistic expression.

“The Portuguese-speaking nations span 900 years and there are over 265 million speakers spread through all continents, including our heritage communities here in the U.S.,” said Dr. Oliveira. “And the Portuguese language has the unique ability to connect all of those different cultures and people in all continents today.”

Students 5 to 10 years old (grades K-5) are invited to explore a bilingual picture book provided by the IPLWS and submit their drawings based on the story of the book. Students aged 11 to 18 are asked to explore a given theme.

“Our themes are designed to be developmentally appropriate for students’ ages, and relevant to Portuguese language learning, following curricular guidance set by the Rhode Island World Language Standards and the ACTFL World Readiness Standards for Learning Languages,” Dr. Silvia said.

Teachers are asked to work with their students in exploring themes and in encouraging their students’ imagination and creativity through artistic expression.

“The materials are made available to all K-12 teachers of Portuguese language and Lusophone cultures; however, only Rhode Island students can submit their artwork for this contest,”

What are the age categories and themes for the 2026 Bilingual Lusophone Art Calendar?

The 2025 Lusophone Calendar Art Contest age categories and themes are as follows:

Ages 5 to 7 (Grades K-2): ‘Summer with Grandpa/Verão com o Avô’ by Elisavet Arkolaki;
Ages 8 to 10 (Grades 3-5): ‘Summer with Grandpa/Verão com o Avô’ by Elisavet Arkolaki or ‘A Lusophone Picture of the Past’;
Ages 11-13 (Grades 6 -8): ‘A Lusophone Picture of the Past’;
Ages 14-18 (Grades 9 -12): ‘A Lusophone Picture of the Past.’

Only one entry per student will be accepted.

Entries will be judged by a panel of judges selected by the IPLWS Community Advisory Board.

The three entries in each age category with the most votes will be declared the winners. Each winner will receive a monetary prize.

Each teacher from a winning entry will receive a matching award, to be expended on materials or activities for their Portuguese classes.

*************
If any of you live in Rhode Island, speak Portuguese, and have kids or students who will participate in this competition, please send me an email. 

Thank you!

The post Lusophone Calendar Art Contest for Kids 2025, Rhode Island, USA first appeared on Maltamum.

Meghan Markle reads to children on sidelines of Invictus Games  Good morning I hope you’re doing great. The last time I posted here, I mentioned the Invictus Games and the mini library that would host all my bilingual books in 18 languages. Well, something completely unexpected happened. For an independent author like me who publishes her books on her own, it was huge!  Here, I’m sharing some photos I received of the mini library before the kick-off of the games. And here are some photos from the opening ceremony that I found online.  Later, as I was searching online for photos and videos from the Invictus Games, I discovered that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle hosted a storytelling session at that library, where she read the book “All Are Neighbors” by Alexandra Penfold (Author), Suzanne Kaufman (Illustrator), and Knopf Books for Young Readers (Publisher). Can you spot the books I’ve written and published in the background  ?   In other news, did you know that International Mother Language Day was celebrated on the 21st of February? The International School of Piraeus published videos where students shared interesting information about their languages, like this one about Chinese. They also read books I’ve written and published in various languages: Nelly’s Box, Chinese Happiness Street, Ukrainian Where am I from?, Russian ISP and kids, thank you for this honor. I hope you had a lovely day at school . Finally, we’ve started the process with Vivi Markatos Heinemann/ Vivi Markatos children’s book illustrator and cartoonist. to publish “A Sea of Stars” in new editions (same story) featuring a) a young dad with his toddler girl and b) a young dad with his toddler boy (instead of a mom). Do you like what you see here in the opening scene? We hope that he comes across as a gentle, kind, caring dad who loves deeply his little one. You can reply back to this email if you’d like to and give me your feedback. PS. The artist will try having the kid’s right leg bend over the dad’s arm to make the pose look more natural.  That’s all for now. As always, thank you for your support and following my journey in writing and publishing. I wish you a lovely weekend!

The post Prince Harry and Meghan Markle hosted a storytelling event at the Invictus Games and my books were there <3 first appeared on Maltamum.

Hi,

It’s been a while since I last posted here. I hope you had a good time during the holidays and a great start to the New Year. I’m sharing news about the books below
 

1) New editions

I have now published my bilingual books in:

a) English-Pashto (all seven books, eBooks, paperbacks)

b) English-Dari (all seven books, eBooks, paperbacks)

c) English-Farsi (all seven books, eBooks, paperbacks)

By the end of this week, “Happiness Street” and “A Sea of Stars” will be published in Finnish, and “A Sea of Stars” will be published in Swedish. If you’re a parent/caregiver/teacher teaching any of these languages to kids, kindly reply to this email and let me know. I’d happily celebrate the book launch by offering you the eBook editions to download on Amazon for two days (with the only exception being the Finnish and Swedish editions, as I will not have them available on Kindle Unlimited; read further down bullet point 3).

2) Invictus Games

Have you heard of the Invictus Games? It’s an international multi-sport event first held in 2014 for wounded, injured, and sick servicemen and women, both serving and veterans all around the world. They were founded by Prince Harry, when he was joint patron of The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, along with Sir Keith Mills, and in partnership with the Ministry of Defense, UK. This year, they’re hosted in Vancouver and Whistler in Canada in February, and they will offer a global platform to expand the range and profile of winter adaptive sports. Through sport, they want to inspire recovery, support rehabilitation, and generate a broader understanding and respect for those who serve their country.

What do I have to do with this, though? The Friends and Family Coordinator of the Invictus Games contacted me in November. They’re working towards the set-up of a mini library with a reading area at their Nations Home where the different competitors, friends, and family from all over the world will be staying. Their wish is to create a home away from home for everyone. Having my work considered for such an event is a true honor. We’ve agreed, and everything is now in place. All my bilingual books will be available at their library in 18 languages.

Other authors of bilingual books that I became aware of whose books are also going to be found in that library are Ann Hamilton (titles Hello Little Moon, Oh No Monty and Traditional Fairy Tales Series in French, Spanish and German) and Marisa Taylor (titles Happy Within and Diversity to Me).

3) ILT Education – Sweden, Norway, Finland, Germany, UK

On the 20th of December, I signed a contract with ILT Education that will make my books accessible to even more kids, language teachers, and classrooms! I’m very excited and very honored about this collaboration. In late February/early March, all my bilingual books in English-Swedish, English-Finnish, English-German, and English-Norwegian will be available on Polylino (and Polyglutt in Sweden) in eBook and audio formats and English-Spanish in eBook formats (and hopefully more editions in the 50+ languages that I’ve translated my books into to be added in the future).

ILT Education was founded in Sweden in 1990, and since then, they’ve been committed to making learning materials accessible to everyone. They are the market-leading provider of multilingual digital teaching services in Sweden – 285 of the 290 regions use one of its services – so they are trusted experts in the field regarding effective digital teaching solutions. Since 2018, they’ve started expanding beyond Sweden’s borders and operating in Germany, Finland, the UK and Norway.

PS. Thank you, Araceli Calle-Fernández, for suggesting I contact them and introduce my work.

4) “A Sea of Stars” editions featuring a dad and his daughter, a dad and his son

I’ve been thinking about the following: publishing “A Sea of Stars” in more editions, this time featuring a) a dad and his son and b) a dad and his daughter (same story but with the dad as a main character instead of the mom). What do you think? Should I go ahead and do it? Kindly let me know by replying to this email or messaging me on Facebook.

Also, this is the type of white powdery sand I had in mind while writing “A Sea of Stars” (the video is from Thailand).

5) I’m now a contributor at multilingual-families.com and a moderator of the Facebook group Bilingual / Multilingual Kids & Families

At https://multilingual-families.com/, Ute Limacher-Riebold and Chryssa Oikonomidou (the founders) have several projects in the pipeline that aim to support multilingual and multicultural families living abroad, raise their multilingual children and maintain their languages and cultures across the lifespan in the most effective way. This initiative is volunteer-driven and relies on collaboration with passionate individuals and expert professionals from diverse fields of multilingualism around the globe. Two free webinars are coming soon, so check them out here https://multilingual-families.com/ (1 in English and 1 in Greek)!

Hugo Miranda, admin of Bilingual / Multilingual Kids & Families, founder and Spanish language teacher at Mundobeyondo.com invited me to become a moderator in his group, and I happily accepted. So you’ll find me there as well, taking on a more active role.

6) My work got shortlisted for the Study UK Alumni Awards 2025 at the National Level (Greece)

Years back, I studied and obtained my Master of Science degree in Global Marketing at the University of Liverpool (I studied 100% online), and a few months ago, I received an alumni newsletter mentioning the opening of the applications for the Study UK Alumni Awards 2025, which is for foreigners who studied and completed a degree at a UK university. It was a long shot, but I submitted my application, and I was very happy to see that I got shortlisted at the national level, even though I didn’t make it to the next phase.
 

7) Reviews

It makes me very happy when readers write positive reviews on Amazon (and Goodreads) about the quality of the translations, as lots of care and effort is put into that direction.

It’s also nice to receive some funny ones. I was trying to understand why this reader gave “Cousins Forever” a 5-star review since he/she didn’t receive it and thus never read it. Then it occurred to me, “It says delivered, but I never received it” is his/her nickname on Amazon! Thank you, whoever and wherever you are :).

*****************************************************

8) This one is in Greek, on behalf of Chryssa Oikonomidou

Έρευνα για την Ανίχνευση Αναγκών & Ελλείψεων στην Ελληνόγλωσση Εκπαίδευση Παιδιών στο Εξωτερικό

Αγαπητοί/ές κύριοι/ες,

Θα ήθελα να σας ενημερώσω ότι ο Παιδόκηπος στη Δανία, σε συνεργασία με τη Διεύθυνση Πρωτοβάθμιας Εκπαίδευσης Ηρακλείου Κρήτης, διεξάγει έρευνα με σκοπό να καταγράψει τις ανάγκες και τις ελλείψεις στην ελληνόγλωσση εκπαίδευση παιδιών έως 10 ετών που ζουν στη διασπορά. 

Στόχος της έρευνας είναι η βελτίωση της υπάρχουσας κατάστασης και η αποτελεσματικότερη υποστήριξη της εκπαίδευσης των παιδιών της διασποράς.

Για τους σκοπούς της έρευνας έχουμε δημιουργήσει δύο ερωτηματολόγια:

Ένα ερωτηματολόγιο για γονείς δίγλωσσων παιδιών ελληνικής καταγωγής στη διασπορά

Και ένα ερωτηματολόγιο για δασκάλους που διδάσκουν ελληνικά σε παιδιά ελληνικής καταγωγής στη διασπορά

Θα ήταν πολύ βοηθητικό αν μπορούσατε να κοινοποιήσετε τα ερωτηματολόγια της έρευνας στους γονείς των μαθητών σας καθώς και στους δασκάλους που διδάσκουν ελληνικά στο φορέα σας αντίστοιχα.  

Ο σύνδεσμος του ερωτηματολογίου για δασκάλους είναι:

Ο σύνδεσμος του ερωτηματολογίου για γονείς είναι:

Η συμμετοχή όλων είναι πολύ σημαντική για την επιτυχία αυτής της πρωτοβουλίας και θα μας επιτρέψει να έχουμε μια πιο ολοκληρωμένη εικόνα των αναγκών του εκπαιδευτικού έργου στη διασπορά.

Ευχαριστούμε εκ των προτέρων για τη βοήθειά σας και παραμένουμε στη διάθεσή σας για οποιαδήποτε διευκρίνιση.

***********************************


That’s all for now, thank you for reading and I wish you a lovely rest of the week.

The post New editions, Invictus Games, my books in Swedish schools, and more first appeared on Maltamum.

Reading “Where am I from?” in English and Spanish. Thank you to the reader who sent me this photo. Hi everyone, I wasn’t planning to send another newsletter before Christmas, but I have some extra material and news to share. I hope I’m not disturbing you and taking time out of your busy schedule. 1) The educational and fun activities for the book A Sea of Stars are now available in English and Greek on my website here. You can download and adjust them from English to your target language(s). 2) A while back, I introduced you to the children’s book about Hypatia, written by Sophia Zoraki, the educator who created the activities for A Sea of Stars, on which I did the developmental editing. Now, this book has been published in English-Spanish and Spanish, and the eBook editions are free to download until the 11th of December around 08:00 CET on all Amazon stores. It would help if you searched for them at your local Amazon (the store linked to your Kindle account). The free Kindle app must be installed on your computer/phone as these are kids’ books with illustrations and cannot be read in black and white Kindle devices.   3) When I started writing and publishing bilingual books for kids, I had young readers in mind—kids like ours. It hadn’t occurred to me that adult language learners could use these books, even more so at university programs. I want to thank Soo for her comment on my blog here and for choosing one of my books for an assignment. ***** What’s a teaching credential program? A teaching credential program provides the necessary training and in-classroom experience to become a teacher. It is also known as an educator preparation program in some states in the USA. To earn a teaching certificate, you need to complete a state-approved teaching program. Certification assures you meet the state’s teaching standards and have passed required background checks. ***** 4) Thank you to the International School of Piraeus for choosing my books for their students and for the lovely feature on their social media here.  “At ISP, we are a multicultural community that values and respects all cultures, languages, traditions, customs, and practices. From today, our international students will have the opportunity to visit our library, which has been enriched with books by Ms Elisavet Arkolaki. These are available in Ukrainian, Russian, Chinese, Albanian, Arabic, French, German, and Spanish, with parallel translations in Greek and English. We sincerely thank the author and publisher, Ms Elisavet Arkolaki, for her outstanding contributions and unwavering commitment to supporting multicultural families abroad.” 5) I discovered these online about my books <3. Nelly’s Box in English-Ukrainian . #readacrossamerica day #Spanishclub at bilinguasing.com (this one, though, isn’t random; I’ve been in touch before with Charlotte West-Lamorinière at BilinguaSing in South Kent, UK). The screenshots are from Instagram. She recommends and actively uses “Nelly’s Box” for her classes. In her words, “The children loved it!  It’s the second year I read it in clubs; I strongly recommend it to language teachers!” I found this post featuring Nelly’s Box in English-Ukrainian through a Google search. Rutland Libraries, UK, chose it, along with other books, for their Ukrainian language collection.  The CALIFORNIA reading & literature project featured and recommended Summer with Grandpa on their Instagram account. Ending with this and a summerish vibe, I wish you all Merry Christmas and/or Happy holidays :).

The post A Sea of Stars activities can be downloaded now, eBooks in Spanish and some other news first appeared on Maltamum.

Hi,

I hope you’re all doing great right before the Christmas holidays :). Today’s post is going to be short. I just wanted to let you know: 

1) I have published all my bilingual books in Estonian, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese (except A Sea of Stars and Where am I from?, which will be published early next year). A Sea of Stars is now also available in Danish and Lithuanian. To celebrate this, the eBook editions are now free to download till the 5th of December around 08:00 CET on all Amazon stores. You’ll need to search for the books that interest you at your local Amazon (the store linked to your Kindle account). The free Kindle app must be installed on your computer/phone as these are kids’ books with illustrations and cannot be read in black and white Kindle devices.

If you’d like to help me, please leave a star rating or review on Amazon and/or Goodreads here afterward. For feedback/suggestions, you can send me an email at liza @ maltamum.com 

2) All books will soon be published in Hebrew, Pashto, Farsi, and Dari. I aim to have everything ready before the holidays except Farsi, which will need to wait until early next year. Depending on demand, more languages can be added next year.

3) I will upload here the PDF with the accompanying activities for A Sea of Stars by the end of this week. As usual, you can download it for free and adjust it to your respective languages. 

4) The International School of Piraeus (IB-certified) purchased my books in many languages. If you’re interested in buying 50+ books for your school, library, group of students, event, etc., you can contact me at liza@maltamum.com for wholesale prices and purchase directly through me instead of Amazon.

5) I don’t often receive direct emails from readers, so it always feels special when I do. G. discovered Cousins Forever at the San Diego County Library – Bonita-Sunnyside Branch in California, USA. She read it with her son and niece, two cousins who enjoyed reading the book together, and played the “Word Swap” game. 

. I’m sharing her email with permission and the kids’ paintings, depicting their favorite words: “Love” and “Snake.” I updated the English-Spanish edition’s back pages (these are the languages they speak even though they borrowed the English-Filipino edition) to feature their paintings. 

That’s all from me this year. Happy holidays and Merry Christmas, and I wish you a great ending to 2024.

The post More languages and free eBooks today! first appeared on Maltamum.

Hi everyone,

I just published my new book “A Sea of Stars”, illustrated by Vivi Markatos Heinemann, in more languages!

Back cover text:
During a magical evening, a mother and her child explore the beauty of the nocturnal world together and discover the enchanting spectacle of bioluminescence. This poetic bedtime story celebrates the strong bond between a mother and her child, and the wonders of nature surrounding them.

You can now find it in the following language combinations in a) boy and b) girl eBook and paperback editions:

English – Arabic A Sea of Stars – بحر من النجوم
English – Bosnian A Sea of Stars – More zvijezda
English – Dutch A Sea of Stars – Een sterrenzee
English – Hungarian A Sea of Stars – Csillagtenger
English – Irish A Sea of Stars – Farraige na Réaltaí
English – Korean A Sea of Stars – 별의 바다
English – Portuguese Portugal A Sea of Stars – Um Mar de Estrelas
English – Portuguese Brazil A Sea of Stars – Um Mar de Estrelas
English – Russian A Sea of Stars – Звёздное море
English – Serbian A Sea of Stars – Море звезда
English – Spanish A Sea of Stars – Un mar de estrellas
English – Ukrainian A Sea of Stars – Зоряне море

To celebrate this, the eBook editions are now free to download till the 1st of November around 08:00 CET on all Amazon stores. You’ll need to search for the books that interest you at your local Amazon (the store linked to your Kindle account). The free Kindle app must be installed on your computer/phone as these are kids’ books with illustrations and cannot be read in black and white Kindle devices.

If you’d like to help me, please leave a star rating or review on Amazon and/or Goodreads here afterward. For feedback/suggestions, you can send me an email at liza @ maltamum.com 

If you read my previous post you saw that early this month I also published this book in the following language combinations in a) boy and b) girl eBook and paperback editions:

English – Albanian    A Sea of Stars – Një det yjesh
English – Armenian  A Sea of Stars – Աստղալից ծովը
English – Croatian    A Sea of Stars – More zvijezda
English – French      A Sea of Stars – Une mer d’étoiles
English – German    A Sea of Stars – Ein Meer von Sternen
English – Greek       A Sea of Stars – Μια θάλασσα από αστέρια
English – Italian       A Sea of Stars – Un mare di stelle
English – Maltese    A Sea of Stars – Baħar ta’ Stilel
English – Norwegian  A Sea of Stars – Et hav av stjerner
English – Polish      A Sea of Stars – Morze gwiazd
English – Romanian  A Sea of Stars – Un ocean de stele
English – Turkish    A Sea of Stars – Yıldızlar Denizi
English – Vietnamese  A Sea of Stars – Biển đầy sao

It turned out to be a great book launch! L-Aġenzija Nazzjonali tal-Litteriżmu (National Literary Agency Malta), which has supported my work as an author since the publication of my 1st book, ordered 100 copies of “A Sea of Stars” and 150 copies of previous titles in English-Maltese. Annabel Desira, a talented fellow author, translator, and educator translated these books into Maltese. These books will be made available at their literacy resources centers and school libraries in Malta and Gozo and will be used by teachers teaching multilingual learners in primary schools. More here.


PS. “A Sea of Stars” will also be published in boy and girl editions only in English by the end of the month, and in more languages combined with Greek in bilingual editions. Thank you so much!

The post A Sea of Stars is now available in Spanish, Portuguese, and many more languages first appeared on Maltamum.

Hi everyone, I just published my new book “A Sea of Stars”, illustrated by Vivi Markatos, in many languages! Back cover text: During a magical evening, a mother and her child explore the beauty of the nocturnal world together and discover the enchanting spectacle of bioluminescence. This poetic bedtime story celebrates the strong bond between a mother and her child, and the wonders of nature surrounding them. The book is available right now in the following language combinations in a) boy and b) girl eBook and paperback editions: English – Albanian    A Sea of Stars – Një det yjesh English – Armenian  A Sea of Stars – Աստղալից ծովը English – Croatian    A Sea of Stars – More zvijezda English – French      A Sea of Stars – Une mer d’étoiles English – German    A Sea of Stars – Ein Meer von Sternen English – Greek       A Sea of Stars – Μια θάλασσα από αστέρια English – Italian       A Sea of Stars – Un mare di stelle English – Maltese    A Sea of Stars – Baħar ta’ Stilel English – Norwegian  A Sea of Stars – Et hav av stjerner English – Polish      A Sea of Stars – Morze gwiazd English – Romanian  A Sea of Stars – Un ocean de stele English – Turkish    A Sea of Stars – Yıldızlar Denizi English – Vietnamese  A Sea of Stars – Biển đầy sao To celebrate this, the eBook editions will be free to download tomorrow the 3rd of October from about 09:00CET till the 5th of October around 09:00 CET on all Amazon stores. You’ll need to search for the books at your local Amazon (the store that’s linked to your Kindle account). The free Kindle app needs to be installed on your computer/phone as these are kids’ books with illustrations and they cannot be read in black and white Kindle devices. If you’d like to help me, please leave a review or just a star rating on Amazon and/or Goodreads here. For feedback/suggestions, you can send me an email at liza @ maltamum.com  ************************ Next week we have the autumn school holiday and after that, I’ll work on publishing this book in the following languages: English (monolingual) English – Arabic English – Bosnian English – Dutch English – Hungarian English – Irish English – Korean English – Portuguese Portugal English – Portuguese Brazil English – Russian English – Serbian English – Spanish English – Ukrainian More languages and editions can be added depending on demand. I’m attaching screenshots here of the whole book (English-Greek, girl edition). Thank you so much, I hope you’ll also love this book!

The post The new book is ready, the ebooks can be downloaded tomorrow! first appeared on Maltamum.

Greek-Danish edition of “Where am I from?”, photo courtesy of Paidokipos in Copenhagen, Denmark.


Hi everyone,

I hope you had a lovely summer vacation – that is if you’re also living in that side of the world where the summer months just ended. We had a lovely time back in my home country, Greece, and at our home in Norway :). Here’s a photo of a beautiful sunset in Greece, and a photo of a deer casually walking from the field next to us and then through our garden in Norway (it’s very common here not to have fences around our houses, yes, it’s that safe, and to see deers and other animals).




As usual, I will list the different news and info and you can scroll down to read only what interests you.

1) Some “thank you” to public organizations that support my work

a) I’d like to thank David Muscat on behalf of Malta’s National Literacy Agency/L-Aġenzija Nazzjonali tal-Litteriżmu who ordered copies of my bilingual books in many languages. These books will be made available at their literacy resources centres and school libraries in Malta and Gozo and they will be used by teachers teaching multilingual learners in primary schools.

b) The National Library of Norway in Oslo and specifically the Multilingual Library (DFB) departmentthat ordered my books in several languages. Their role is to support other Norwegian libraries in their provision of library services to a multilingual and multicultural population. The most important way they do this is by acquiring collections in many languages, and by cataloging and making those collections available for inter-library lending. More info can be found here.

c) Books of mine can also be borrowed from the Vestfold county libraries in Norway, with more being available at our local library in Horten, and in many libraries worldwide. From what I can see here there are many entries on WorldCat and each one of those is clickable and shows many more listings in libraries in the USA, Australia, Canada, and more.

If you know other organizations in your area/country that might be interested in purchasing my books, please leave a comment or send me an email at liza@ maltamum.com and let me know.

2) NEW BOOK – CAN YOU HELP?

 
I’m working on publishing a new book and I’d love your input . It’s a goodnight story for the younger ones, a babywearing adventure that, in my mind, is taking place in Thailand or the Maldives, and where the duo mommy + child experience the phenomenon of bioluminescence. I will publish an edition in English and several bilingual ones: a) featuring a mother + a boy toddler and b) a mother + a girl toddler. The artist is Vivi Markatos Heinemann.


Book title?
Can you help me come up with a sweet, short, and easy-to-translate title? As I publish my books on Amazon, the title should ideally contain some keywords. I initially came up with “Wrapped in a Sea of Stars” (wrapped -> wrap -> babywearing and “Sea of Stars” implying the phenomenon of bioluminescence), but this will be tricky to translate for the bilingual editions. Other ideas were “Glowing Waters” and “Sea of Stars.”


Full story below (13 spreads). Is there anything you’d word differently (US, UK, AU, CA) and/or any other suggested changes?

(Edit 6th March 2025: the book is published, and I removed the story text from the blog)

The post New book -you can participate in its creation- and lots of other news! first appeared on Maltamum.

Luxembourgish books / Luxembourgish English bilingual books for kids / Luxembourgish English dual language books

A Sea of Stars, Where am I from?, Cousins Forever, Happiness Street, Nelly’s Box, and Summer with Grandpa are bilingual books written by Elisavet Arkolaki (me), published on Amazon in 50+ languages, and as of right now, close to 65,000 books and eBooks are in the hands of readers (November 2024, over 15k eBooks have been offered and downloaded for free). Currently, Where am I from?, Happiness Street, Cousins Forever, Nelly’s Box, and Summer with Grandpa are available in Luxembourgish English editions. These books are perfect for bilingual kids and kids learning Luxembourgish or English as their second language and can be purchased from all Amazon stores. Books of mine can also be found or requested in public libraries worldwide. If you’re interested in buying 50+ books for your school, library, group of students, event, etc., you can contact me at liza@maltamum.com for wholesale prices.

Read-aloud videos of these stories in many languages can be watched on PEaCH bilingualfamily.eu YouTube channel here. I am an ambassador of this EU, Erasmus+ funded project for bilingual and multilingual families. More information about my background can be found here.

For example, here’s a read-aloud video of “Cousins Forever” narrated in English.

There’s also a video of an event at Lynden Sculpture Garden, USA, as part of the “HOME Multilingual Story Time” project featuring Cousins Forever, which might work as an inspiration for more school and library projects. The story was read in English and Ukrainian by Halyna Salapata from Wisconsin for Ukraine, and the storytelling session ended with an art activity from Lynden art educator Claudia Orjuela in English and Spanish, where local kids were invited to send her their paintings and words to play the “Word swap” game.

Here’s also a video of kids of various ages reading Nelly’s Box in English and Romanian at the Centrul Educațional Arici Pogonici in collaboration with the Plymouth Babylab at the University of Plymouth, which might give you some ideas on how to use bilingual books in a classroom.

About my bilingual books

Dual-language or bilingual books are books in which the story is written in two languages. The bilingual books I publish are ideal for early readers and beginner language learners: white backgrounds (except books for a younger audience where the background has color), large and easy-to-read fonts, the image on one page and the text on the other, modern themes relevant to bilingual children, bilingual main characters and families that speak more than one language, etc. These books are available in 50+ languages with progressively longer stories from one book to the other. More languages and editions can be added depending on demand.

Amazon USA link
Amazon UK link
Amazon CA link
Amazon AU link
Amazon DE link
Amazon IT link
Amazon ES link
Amazon FR link

Cousins Forever  Download the accompanying activities in English here.
Happiness Street -> Download the accompanying activities in English here.
Nelly’s Box -> Download the accompanying activities in English here.
Summer with Grandpa -> Download the accompanying activities in English here. 
Where am I from? -> Download the accompanying activities in English here.

Where am I from? – Wou kommen ech hier?

Nelly’s Box – Dem Nelly seng Këscht

Summer with Grandpa – Ee Summer mam Bopi

Cousins Forever – Cousineë fir ëmmer

Happiness Street – D’Glécks Strooss

The post Luxembourgish Bilingual Children’s Books first appeared on Maltamum.

Hi,

I hope you’re doing great Straight to the point, all news and updates below:

1) “Where am I from?” is now available in bilingual editions in 30+ languages with English both in eBook and paperback formats! 

To celebrate this, the new eBook editions will be free to download tomorrow the 4th of June from about 09:00 CET till the 6th of June at about 09:00 CET (48h) on all Amazon stores. All you need to download and read them is an Amazon account (.com/.co.uk./.de/, etc) and the free Kindle app installed on your phone/computer/tablet (you cannot read the eBooks on a Kindle that’s made for black and white novels, you need the app or a tablet that supports illustrated in color children’s eBooks). If you have several Amazon accounts (ie if you live in Europe), search for them on the Amazon store connected to your Kindle account.

Please consider writing a short review afterward on Amazon and/or Goodreads. It will help us immensely!
 

Available languages and bilingual editions right now:
English with Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Czech, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Georgian, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Korean, Luxembourgish, Macedonian, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Swedish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, and Turkish.  

Free eBook editions for 48h:
ArabicWhere am I from? – من أين أتيتت؟ 
Bosnian Where am I from? – Odakle sam ja? 
Czech Where am I from? – Odkud jsem? 
Danish Where am I from? – Hvor kommer jeg fra? 
Dutch Where am I from? – Waar kom ik vandaan? 
Finnish Where am I from? – Mistä olen kotoisin? 
Georgian Where am I from? – საიდან ვარ? 
Greek Where am I from? – Από πού είμαι;
Hungarian Where am I from? – Honnan jöttem?
Icelandic Where am I from? – Hvaðan er ég? 
Latvian Where am I from? – No kurienes es esmu? 
Lithuanian Where am I from? – Iš kur aš esu? 
Korean Where am I from? – 나는 어디에서 왔을까? 
Luxembourgish Where am I from? – Wou kommen ech hier?
Macedonian Where am I from? – Од каде сум? 
Portuguese Brazilian Where am I from? – De onde eu vim? 
Portuguese of Portugal Where am I from? – De onde sou?  
Serbian Where am I from? – Одакле сам ја?
Slovak Where am I from? – Odkiaľ som?  
Swedish Where am I from? – Var kommer jag ifrån?  


Coming in June:

• “Where am I from?” in more bilingual editions in Greek with other languages
• “Nelly’s Box” and “Summer with Grandpa” in English with Maltese
   

Coming by the end of the summer:

• “Nelly’s Box” and “Summer with Grandpa” in English with Finnish, Icelandic, Luxembourgish, Swedish
• “Summer with Grandpa” in Danish 

If there are any other languages you’d like to see my books published in, just hit “reply” to this email to let me know, and I’ll consider it.


2) Plymouth Babylab and the Spanish language school Nuestra Escuela

In other news, personnel from the Plymouth Babylab (University of Plymouth) visited the Spanish language school Nuestra Escuela and read “Happiness Street – Calle Felicidad” to the little ones. You will find some photos below. A big thank you, it’s great to see the books used in language classes <3.



3) Germaine Moran Koskina, PhD, Adjunct Professor and 2-Way Dual Language Bilingual Teacher read ¿De dónde soy? – Where Am I from? at the 2nd grade, Hodge Elementary, 2-way dual language school (USA).

“My 2nd grade dual language classroom enjoyed Elisavet Arkolaki’s new book ¿De dónde soy? – Where Am I from?

This is how we read the book: We read each page in both languages to make it comprehensible. I showed it on the screen so the children could read along and notice the cognates. As we were reading, we went to Google maps to find the country mentioned In the page and look at photos of it, and then we looked up the creature mentioned on the page. We traveled around the world and learned about legends and animals close to extinction. We also learned about the art form of graffiti. Great book! I wanted to broaden students’ background knowledge using books and Google. Some may never travel out of our town but will have ‘traveled the world’ in our class and have learned all about it!“




4) Claire Annette Noland, children’s librarian, reading specialist, and an author of easy readers, board books, and picture books for young children reviewed the book

“A group of children come together wondering where they come from. Each child thinks they know. It is the country where they live. But how can that be since they each live in different places? From Malta to Australia, each child describes their mode of transportation which includes swimming with a dolphin, flying on a dragon, and riding on a lion’s back. None of them, however, can agree on the one place they are all from until the youngest child reveals the answer.

The brilliant illustrations are a perfect match for the text as the author and illustrator worked together to create this stunning book. Amazingly, the illustrations are graffiti art painted on the walls of elementary schools.

Why this WHERE AM I FROM? should be added to your shelves: It includes a wonderful group of diverse children with mixed cultural and linguistic heritages. Each spread shows a child with a background setting and animals from their country of origin. The children travel to their destination in fabulous ways mixing fantasy with fact. Who wouldn’t want to hop in a kangaroo’s pocket? The detailed graffiti illustrations will entice children to find new things with each rereading. This book will be a good addition to elementary school geography and social studies curriculum and will encourage lively discussions. The text is lyrical and kid-friendly and perfect for emerging readers.”

That’s all for now. Thank you for your continuous support. I wish you a lovely start to the week and a great summer if you also live in a country where the summer months begin just now :).

The post Where am I from? is now available in 30+ languages – download the eBooks for free for 48h! first appeared on Maltamum.