New editions, Invictus Games, my books in Swedish schools, and more
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.
Category: Uncategorized
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
