No Grandparent Left Behind

The Betty and Cat books came about when a French friend of mine, whose grandchildren are being brought up in French and English, complained that she felt left out of the bilingual experience. Her English skills were there, but rusty. She asked me if we couldn’t do a bilingual book together (Marie’s an illustrator of children’s books). And not one that was translated. We both agreed that no one has the patience to read something twice: once in the foreign language ad once in translation.

One day, while Jeff and I were having breakfast in bed, with Betty and Cat at our feet, the idea came to me. Thus my primary motivation was to help parents and grandparents feel more at home with the budding bilingualism of the kids around them. Kids themselves are so flexible and so greedy for learning new things, that I figured they didn’t need any more help! They would just *get* it. So far, it seems to be working. Lots of sales have come from grandparents who bought the book as a gift. They then read it to or with the bilingual kids around them. That makes them feel good – and me feel good!

Share

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *