Wishes Hopes and Dreams bilingual Spanish English book tour

 

 

 

Review

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author and am willingly leaving this review.

What a sweet book. I love that it’s bilingual, making it accessible to a farther reach. The full book has both languages, so the top sentence is in English and the one just below that is in Spanish.

The illustrations are cute and I especially loved how all different races, backgrounds, and locations were represented in the art.

This story is about a dreamer, a child who wants the whole world to work together to improve our lives. This story embraces that we are different, but really all are striving for the same goal – a better life for our families.

I also like that the book has a list of things we can each do to help make the world better.

Excerpt

Here’s a page from the book showing the bilingual sentences and a cute illustration of the main character.

 

Author Interview

What inspired your story?
My husband and I are attempting to raise our daughter to be bilingual. We come from different continents, languages, religious and cultural backgrounds. There are so many people out there who are multilingual like us and trying to teach their children more than one language, yet there are very few bilingual books out there. I’ve tried supplementing our library with Spanish books, but most of them are just translations of existing English books. I also wanted to write a book with a positive message; one that embraces cultural and religious differences and inspires others to be the best they can be.

 

Is there a message/theme in your book that you want your readers to grasp?
We are all humans with wishes, hopes and dreams. Try to be the best you can be, respect others and the earth.

 

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer? Or what inspired you to write?
When I was 21 years old I wrote a list of goals I wanted to achieve in the next 10 years and one of them was writing a children’s book. I was always so busy teaching and traveling that it was fun to have a few goals that didn’t come to fruition. Fast forward another 10 years and now I’m a mom who finally has more time on her hands (due to the recent pandemic), and I really wanted to revisit my dream of writing. While this is my first children’s book, I recently self-published a few adult parodies of children’s books. It’s a very small niche that I enjoyed exploring; it helped me find humor in sad/tense situations and was a great starting point, but I’d rather focus on actual children’s stories.

 

Have you been able to incorporate your previous experience in jobs/education in your writing?
Most definitely. I have a master’s degree in education and many years of teaching experience. When I was writing this book I really put some thought as to ways to extend the story and increase its educational value. Useful vocabulary words are highlighted in green in both English and Spanish and defined in both languages in simple terms at the end of the story. There is also a “How Can I Help?” section for further discussion and to inspire children to get involved to be global citizens.

 

Share some advice for aspiring authors.
Just go for it! There are so many resources readily available to help get you started. It’s easy to be deterred by statistics but you never know if you’ll be a success unless you try. As Elenor Roosevelt once said, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” I’ve never been afraid to dream, and it’s served me well.

 

About the Author

Stacey R is a lifelong educator who wants to help others through her books. She loves to travel, create art, and enjoys the outdoors. This is her first children’s bilingual picture book. She lives in New York with her four-year-old daughter and husband.

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