MY GIFT TO YOU—GET YOUR FREE EBOOK—”THE 5-DAY JOURNEY TO CULTURAL AWARENESS”!
Maybe we can’t jump on a plane right now to cross the border into a foreign land, but that’s a lame excuse not to travel. We can still travel the world through our minds and imaginations.
That’s the power of reading!
Last night, I was in a training for children’s book publishing.
Yes . . . now you know my secret . . . I’m working on publishing my first children’s book. It’s one of several that I’ve written.
I won’t share all the details now, but my stories are about a little boy, Pierre, who travels the world. He’s a little Cultural Story-Weaver! I’m so excited! Perhaps you can hear me screaming with delight from across the ocean. 🙂
My amazing illustrator is already working her divine gifts behind the curtain, so I’m expecting that my first book will make its debut before the end of the year. I’ll keep you posted!
Until then . . . let us travel around the world through reading. Let’s begin today—it’s “World Book Day”!
Did you know?
I didn’t. I didn’t know that today is “World Book Day” until my training session last night.
We were doing an exercise, browsing on Amazon’s best seller’s list of children’s books.
Here is what I saw at the top of the page.
I was curious. After my training, I
A Worldwide Tribute
At UNESCO’s General Conference in Paris in 1995, they made the decision to declare April 23 as “World Book and Copyright Day,” “to pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors on this date, encouraging everyone to access books.”
They chose April 23, because it represented a symbolic date in world literature. It was the date on which several prominent authors died— William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes,
(I just recently visited the home of Miguel de Cervantes in Alcala de Henares, Spain. It is a free museum visit and is well worth the trip if you ever travel to the Madrid area of Spain one day in the future.)
“World Book and Copyright Day is a celebration to promote the enjoyment of books and reading. Each year, on 23 April, celebrations take place all over the world to recognize the scope of books —a link between the past and the future, a bridge between generations and across cultures.”
UNESCO
Wow, a link and a bridge between cultures! That sounds like “Weaving Cultures” to me!
Weaving Cultures!
Yes, we can “Weave Cultures” in our minds and our imaginations as we travel the world through books.
UNESCO stresses the importance of “World Book Day” during this strange time of loneliness and isolation during the COVID-19 crisis in 2020.
“Through reading and the celebration of World Book and Copyright Day, 23 April, we can open ourselves to others despite
UNESCOdistance , and we can travel thanks toimagination . By creating a sense of community through the shared readings and the shared knowledge, readers around the world can connect and mutually help curb loneliness.”
Are you ready to travel the world with me through books?
How About Free Books?
If you go to Amazon.com right now until tomorrow, April 24, you can get a number of free kindle books by international authors from around the globe.
I personally grabbed The Girl in the Tree by Şebnem İşigüzel from Turkey, Life by Lu Yao from China, Your Perfect Year by Charlotte Lucas from Germany, and Along the Tapajos by Fernando Vilela from Brazil (a children’s picture book for Pierre).
Grab these free books by international authors today—while you can!
Travel the world through books—in your living room!
If you want to go further, I also made another fascinating discovery. I’m on A
There is a section on Amazon called Amazon Crossing. Its message is “Read the World—Bringing readers from around the globe together through literature in translation.”
There you can explore “Books From Around the World.“
While browsing, I found and purchased for $0.99 a book by a Malaysian-Chinese author, Yoke, Selina Siak Chin, called “The Woman Who Breathed Two Worlds.”
The title intrigued me. I often feel like a woman breathing four worlds—American, French, Moroccan, and now Spanish.
At Amazon Crossing, you call also explore international “Children’s Books.” What a great way to open our kids to the world!
So, like I said at the beginning of this story . . . we can’t jump on an airplane today, tomorrow . . . or who knows when. However, we have no excuse not to travel.
Let’s all put on our cultural awareness glasses, open some international books, and travel the world through our minds and imaginations!
You have nothing to lose, and the whole world to gain!
—THE CULTURAL STORY-WEAVER
MY GIFT TO YOU—GET YOUR FREE EBOOK—”THE 5-DAY JOURNEY TO CULTURAL AWARENESS”!
LET’S WEAVE CULTURES!
What about you? Are you ready to travel the world through books with
We invite you to tell us your own cultural stories and global adventures . . . as you engage with the world, breaking down barriers, building bridges, and “weaving cultures”! Write about them in the comment box below.
