Please welcome back to Frog on a Blog, author, screenwriter, performer and director Derek Taylor Kent. You may remember Derek’s last visit when he shared “The Mystery of the Picture Book” along with his first El Perro book El Perro con Sombrero: A Bilingual Doggy Tale. (Read that article along with my review of his fabulous book by clicking HERE.)
Derek and his wife author Sheri Fink are the founders of Whimsical World, an empowering children’s brand that publishes books and produces whimsical merchandise, inspiring entertainment, and magical experiences for children of all ages.
I’m happy to report that the sequel to El Perro con Sombrero, El Perro con Sombrero meets Los Gatos con Gelatos (that’s fun to say!) is hot off the presses. I asked Derek to stop in and tell us a little about the book and how it ties in with Whimsical World’s mission “to inspire, delight, and educate children of all ages while planting seeds of self-esteem and high achievement.”
The Whimsical World of Bilingual Books
By Derek Taylor Kent
Hello Frog on a Blog readers! This is Derek Taylor Kent, AKA Derek the Ghost. You may know me as the author of the middle-grade series Scary School, the bilingual picture book El Perro con Sombrero, and many more that have been reviewed right here on this blog.
I’m here today to share with you some exciting insider info about my latest book, the sequel to El Perro con Sombrero called El Perro con Sombrero meets Los Gatos con Gelatos.
But first, in case you hadn’t heard yet, last year I married fellow children’s book author Sheri Fink! (www.SheriFink.com) We are truly the perfect match for each other and have had soooo much fun and so many adventures since we’ve been together. Check out Sheri’s Instagram @Sheri_Fink and you’ll see what I mean.
One of the best parts about our relationship is that we got to combine our imaginations and books together to create a brand new children’s brand called Whimsical World. We say that our mission at Whimsical World is to inspire, delight, and educate children of all ages while planting seeds of self-esteem and high achievement. This mission includes not only our library of books, but also live events such as school visits, book festival appearances, comic cons, plus pop-up experiences like Unicorn Parties and whimsical book launches. We also have whimsical merchandise, lesson plans for schools to accompany our books, interactive fan experiences on our website, and some truly incredible things in the works that we can’t wait to share with you.
Some of you may be wondering how my latest book, El Perro con Sombrero meets Los Gatos con Gelatos, fits in with our Whimsical World mission to inspire, delight, and educate children while planting seeds of self-esteem and high achievement.
All of our books at Whimsical World carry important social-emotional learning messages. They are designed so that every child discovers something new about themselves when they read each story. They can also come to a better understanding of how to be a good person, a good friend, or a good family member. Some of our most popular titles with these messages include The Little Rose, The Little Unicorn and The Little Seahorse. Some of the books are also certified STEM educational books such as Counting Sea Life with the Little Seahorse and Simon and the Solar System.
El Perro con Sombrero meets Los Gatos con Gelatos fits into both categories, as it can be used for educational purposes as well as for social-emotional learning. On the education side, it can be utilized by youngsters learning either Spanish or English. Since the text is written in both languages (see images) children will naturally gravitate toward the language they don’t know once they’ve heard it in their native tongue for the first time. With the first El Perro con Sombrero, parents have often told me that their kids prefer to have it read to them in Spanish even though they don’t speak it! That’s because they know the story so well that hearing it in Spanish makes it a whole new story for them and their brain starts automatically picking up the language. Much to the parents’ shock, the kids start speaking it around the house automatically!
Dual immersion schools also use El Perro con Sombrero because sometimes stories can create a more positive language-learning association than textbooks. When they read the story about Pepe, the homeless dog who chances upon a lucky sombrero that turns his life around, students become excited about language because they see that no matter where you come from, we all love the same characters and stories.
Besides the two El Perro books, I have a third bilingual picture book called Doggy Claus/Perro Noel, about Santa Claus’ dog who takes Santa’s sleigh so he can deliver presents to all the dogs in the world. This one is perfect for language learning during the sometimes distracting holiday season!
In El Perro con Sombrero meets Los Gatos con Gelatos, Pepe has settled at home with his new family and his best friend is the daughter, little Lucia. He waits patiently at her feet while she finishes her homework so they can go outside and play together. But when Lucia accidently drops her homework assignment on the way to school, Pepe decides he must bring it to her before school starts so she can get her A in math. However, his mission turns out to be fraught with peril, including a gang of ice-cream-loving cats called Los Gatos con Gelatos who have other plans for Pepe.
Throughout his journey to the school, Pepe is confronted with a series of obstacles where the easy thing to do would be to give up and go back home, but each time he makes the conscious decision not to give up and come up with clever and creative solutions. The social-emotional learning message in this book is about persistence, hard work, creative problem solving, and how good deeds can end up benefitting you in the long run.
Overcoming multiple trials and errors to accomplish his goal gives Pepe the ultimate feeling of peace and earned self-esteem by the end.
That’s a valuable lesson no matter what language you speak. Olé!
I look forward to hearing your thoughts about the book and how you have been able to use books and stories to teach languages and important lessons to your little ones.
You can learn more about Derek’s books and Whimsical World at www.WhimsicalWorldBooks.com and www.DerekTaylorKent.com. Follow on Social Media @DerekTaylorKent and @WhimsicalWorldBooks
Derek, Sheri and Zander
Derek Taylor Kent is an author, screenwriter, performer and director based in Los Angeles. Best known for his children’s books, his best-selling, award-winning books are treasured in hundreds of thousands of homes across the world. He and his wife, author Sheri Fink, are the founders of Whimsical World, an empowering children’s brand that publishes books and produces whimsical merchandise, inspiring entertainment, and magical experiences for children of all ages.
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