The app for independent voices
Multingualism is such a gift and an abundance and a connective tissue between people and peoples. Children who are bilingual and multilingual must be supported and celebrated. No child should feel ashamed of their family’s languages. Languages are a form of wealth and a living archive. Languages are our ancestors. Let’s support bilingual and multilingual kids’ books!
This year I realized when giving talks about creative writing and book life and reading life that I’ve been a book author for 21 years!? How is that possible? My first published book — about a multiracial Korean American boy named Cooper (and his dog named Catso) — is old enough to go to the bars this year! LOL. Although it’s a children’s book, so it can’t. And I am too old to care about bars (I stopped caring about bars when I was twenty…). But I digress!
Small, dedicated, mission-driven presses have made so much wonderful literature available to us over the decades/centuries. Big shout-out to one of the first bilingual publishers for children (1975!), Children’s Book Press, which took a chance on me! My book, bilingual in Korean and English!, was acquired along with other CBP books by Lee & Low Press after CBP sunsetted after the Great Recession, and is available in paperback. I’m eternally grateful to Lee & Low for acquiring our books and for doing so much literary citizenship work on diversity in children’s book publishing. That deserves its own Substack newsletter, too, one day soon.
Shout out also to Min Paek, the wonderful translator, and Kim Cogan, the illustrator who did all the art in physical paintings for my first picture book. This was before so many kids’ picture books were done in digital art (nothing against it! But it’s also true that physical paintings are special!). I will do a whole newsletter about Min Paek and her book AEKYUNG’S DREAM, soon, because she is one of my Korean American heroes!
You can find all of CBP’s books acquired by Lee & Low here:
Harriet Rohmer, founder of Children’s Book Press, is one of my heroes. Read more about the press here in a Publishers Weekly article: “One of the earliest and best-known bilingual book publishers was Children’s Book Press, founded in San Francisco in 1975 by Harriet Rohmer. When Children’s Book Press ceased operations in 2012, Lee & Low Books acquired its list and has since brought the majority of its titles back into print. Arte Público Press, Cinco Puntos Press, and Lectorum Publications round off the top four independent bilingual book publishers. Each of these houses publishes four to five bilingual titles per year while the Scholastic en Español imprint publishes an average of 10–15 bilingual titles annually.” publishersweekly.com/pw…
