A good book

To say that I love children's book and reading with my son would be to put it mildly.  We read together a lot.  When we moved, I knew we were not going get rid of his library that we had built over the years.  It was the one thing that I didn't make my son go through and get rid of anything (except a couple baby books that we gave to friends).  I knew from experience that English books in Japan can be very expensive, so we brought them all.

Children's books aren't just my thing.  My son loves to have people read to him.  Sometimes, I catch him "reading" to himself and it sets my heart a flutter.

Before our son was born, we knew we would raise him to be bilingual.  It was and is very important to us that he can speak, read, write, and function in both English and Japanese.  One of the things we have done to support this priority is to spend time reading to him in both languages.  In fact, my husband and I have even purchased several of the same books over the years.  One copy in English and a second copy in Japanese.  Rarely do we find books that are in both languages.

We recently stumbled across a children's book author that self publishes beautiful books in both Japanese and English.  Dabiz (David) Molinero and Junko Matsuoka have created several books with text in both languages.  The artwork is bright, vibrant, and full of fun details.  Dabiz, the artist, is originally from Spain, but now lives in Osaka with his wife Junko, the author, is originally from Japan.

We met Dabiz at the Lohas Festa and bought two of his books, "Sunflower Seeds" and "Secret Island".  He not only inscribed the books for our son, he also created beautiful artwork inside the cover.

Dabiz was a pleasure to meet and chat with.  But even more so, we have enjoyed the stories of Galli, Pepe, and Makina.  My son can bring them to either myself or my husband to read to him.  He loves to find the little grasshopper, Pinpin, on every page. 

I wish more books came in two languages.  It can be so interesting for the kids to see the side by side text, hearing the same information but in two forms.  I also love hearing my husband read the stories that I know so well in Japanese, because the other language has different intonation and emphasis than English.  Our son really gets to hear the subtle differences between the two.  It is so great for his language development.