[00:00:00.570] - Dori Durbin

Welcome to The Power of Kids Books, where we believe books are a catalyst to inspire and empower change. I'm your host, Dori Durbin. This is probably news to most of you listeners, but I'm actually half Hispanic, but I don't know any Spanish. Even though that I took a college class, I have just a few phrases here and there that I could speak, and it makes me really sad that I don't know more. But what what if young kids learned to read English and Spanish at the same time, and it's even in an engaging and entertaining book? Well, today's guest is an author, an early childhood educator, and self proclaimed dreamer who has published two bilingual children's books. Her hope is to create rich bilingual literature for kids, and she's off to a great start. Welcome, Alondra Bustos.

[00:00:50.650] - Alondra Bustos

How are you, Dori?

[00:00:51.470] - Dori Durbin

I am great. So good to have you on. I'll tell the listeners right now, I got the honor of illustrating your most recent book, and it was so fun to see the process, and I had to admit to you that I knew absolutely no Spanish.

[00:01:09.350] - Alondra Bustos

Yeah, you did such a beautiful job, and that's okay. Most of my friends that don't know Spanish and they pick up one of my books are like, I think I should buy this for myself. Don't have kids yet. Because it's fun, engaging, and it's at everybody's entry level stage. So it's a starter book for anyone, not just kids.

[00:01:36.030] - Dori Durbin

Actually, that's a really great point. I think that's the equal leveling playing field is a kids book because it has to be simple enough. And you're right. You could pick it up for yourself and nobody would know any better, and you could probably figure out how to speak phrases and words in Spanish from it.

[00:01:54.180] - Alondra Bustos

Yes, exactly. The question I get all the time is like, what age range are my kids are my books for? And I usually really always just say zero to. Because if you have someone that can read the book to a newborn right. Or a three month old, but then you have those kids that are in dual language immersive schools that can benefit off of a six to twelve year old reading level book because it's in the dual language, it has the English and the Spanish in it. So it's something that's going to be entry level, and it's going to be comfortable for those kids that are still getting comfortable with the different English or Spanish languages.

[00:02:48.790] - Dori Durbin

Yeah, I think that's great. And it's so true. I actually remember having a high school teacher pick up kids books and have us spend some time. There weren't very many then, not many at all. But it was fun. It was so much less pressure and just really entertaining to spend time. And you had the pictures to help you, at least. Well, before we get too far, can you give us a little bit about your background and how that's contributed to you becoming an author in general.

[00:03:21.150] - Alondra Bustos

Yeah. So I am originally from Morelia Michoacan. I immigrated to the States when I was six or seven years old, and I was an English second language learner at that time. I think as I maybe once I was in third grade, is when I really started growing a passion for becoming an educator. But from there it kind of started building up into wanting to write my own stuff and have different ideas because I think the point of view that I had to grow up in was different. It was different than anyone else. So I think the same with everybody. Most of the authors that I meet, the Pandemic really sparked a lot of creativity in so many people, and I was one of them. So I remember kind of just looking at my long list of ideas that I had accumulated throughout the years of books that I wanted to write or things that really just were near to my heart. Yeah, I started writing and during the pandemic and I didn't really think anything of it. It was mostly just to pass the time. But the more I kind of got into writing the book, it definitely sparked all of the childhood memories and the childhood journey that I had to go through in learning English and really also just trying to get a sense into the new environment that I was living in.

[00:05:31.690] - Alondra Bustos

I think I went a little bit back too far ahead, but I have been in the early education field for about ten years now, and it's really shifted throughout the years from when I first started the position that I hold now here where I live and I work for the district as a parent educator. And I've seen the good and I've seen the bad of many different districts. And it's been very eye opening, not just as an educator, but also as a future parent to see the difference and how kids nowadays have a lot more knowledge than kids did ten years ago. When I first started being an educator, I guess when I was getting older, I've always wanted to be a teacher. I just didn't know what kind of teacher I wanted to be. But yeah, I think now there's a bigger purpose for me being an educator, but also I never imagined that I would be able to call myself an author as well. So it's definitely been a beautiful journey.

[00:07:05.270] - Dori Durbin

It's probably very rewarding to be an educator and be able to pull your own book out and say, hey, I happen to have a book for this.

[00:07:12.680] - Alondra Bustos

Exactly. Yes. But it's very empowering too, because sometimes you can pick up a book and you get inspired, and then you take it and you maybe even double that or triple that idea or that concept or even some of the it did open my eyes to how much creativity kids have, so even inspiring them, and they're like, oh, you wrote this book. And it's like, yeah, it's not hard. You can do it too. So that in itself is a wonderful feeling to kind of plant that seed into them and say like you can do it too and for them having someone in front of them and it be a little more tangible than them just hearing it from other people now.

[00:08:25.160] - Dori Durbin

Have you always loved kids books? Has that been a passion for.

[00:08:34.130] - Alondra Bustos

Really my love really started for books was mostly poetry books. Ellen Hopkins is actually I read all of her books, and they were mostly, like, short, I want to say, like poem, like structured books. Her books were very different compared to all of the other chapter books that I've read. But I have more of a lean towards children's books because they open up so much knowledge and so many imagination and wealth of opportunities for kids because they're still at that age where they're adventurous and they want to learn more and they have so many questions. So I think I have a special place in my heart for children's books. Because they teach so much and they should be so important to a child's life in the early stages because it gives them a chance to feel confident in themselves when it comes to reading, even or just comprehension in general because the pictures in a children's books when they're a picture book it invites the child to start just saying and explaining their own version of the book when they're just looking at the pictures. So I think my mentality for Children's book started to change when my 16 year old sister now, when she was about three years old, she would get read to all the time, but she would have specific books that she would just pick.

[00:10:42.910] - Alondra Bustos

Up on her own, and she would say maybe one to two words that correlated with the page that actually were a part of the book, but then she would turn the page and then just make it her own. Thing. And she would use her finger, just as my parents would do, and she would pretend that she's reading. And I think watching that really changed my perspective on children's books. Because it's like the more you read to them. It's the comprehension and it's the cognitive skills that are really being what's the word? Strengthened. Even with just the smallest of books and picture books. And that story really it changed my perspective on children's books.

[00:11:35.090] - Dori Durbin

That's a great image to keep in your mind because I was envisioning kids trying to match the Spanish and the English up together, reading the books they do. They really invest their own understanding of their lives and into that book. Exactly. So I can totally see where they would come up with a completely different story. Which is great, because you want to.

[00:12:00.840] - Alondra Bustos

Encourage that creativity and that curiosity, the imagination.

[00:12:07.130] - Dori Durbin

Yeah, I love that. So, speaking of inspiration and creativity, what actually inspired you to create your first series, which is Learning a New Language? Your first book learning a new language. And then how has it shifted now with the Phoebe and Penny series? Both books are quite a bit different.

[00:12:27.230] - Alondra Bustos

Yes. So my first book was an inspiration that was really near to my heart, and it's more of a picture book biography for me. That's how I kind of see it. And so while learning English in the English language, when I was six to seven years old, I would always myself a little isolated and frustrated, but also eager and excited at the same time. When I was at that young age when I remember and as I started getting older and I witnessed preschool age children at the beginning of my career, I felt really connected to them, obviously, because I knew the boat that they were on. But I was also able to really connect with those kids that were learning English or that were learning Spanish or that didn't know either and only knew. I had a child in my classroom that only spoke Russian, but then I had another child that spoke Portuguese, Spanish, English, Italian. So to me, that was a huge inspiration for me to want to write a book like this that kind of shines some light on how to navigate the social, emotional part of learning a different language. Because by all means, when it comes to preschoolers, three to five years old is when it's so vital to be able to speak to your peers, because that's how you communicate.

[00:14:44.250] - Alondra Bustos

There's a lot of other children that I've encountered that really made me think that speaking language and being confident in it is so important. And it all goes back to being socially and emotionally stable, or at least aware and balanced, especially when you're trying to learn something new. So I wanted to bring a like to that and to help empower children who might be feeling the same mixed of confusing emotions that I felt, which being isolated. And at the beginning, right, you don't know anything, you don't have many friends, or maybe you want to make friends and you can't because you really just can't speak to them. But then I remember I would go home and I would really pretend that I knew all the English in the world, and it was mostly really just jibber jabbish, but I was eager, I was excited. Some of the students that I had in my years, I would see that part of them, but then there's the other part where they would be really frustrated. They would be unmotivated and give up really easily or really just sit with the frustration and the isolation part a little longer.

[00:16:26.490] - Alondra Bustos

And it would be hard for them to kind of see themselves getting through the tunnel and then seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. So I wanted to bring light to those emotions and be able to connect with readers in that way through that book so that they would feel a little bit more empowered, that they would feel seen and not so much estranged from everything else or have to feel very, like what's the word? At the end of it. They would feel accomplished, that it's mostly just part of the journey. And the Phoebe and Penny series, in comparison to the one to my first one, learning a new language. I wanted to make a shift because I wanted something a little bit more fun. So I wanted to bring some fun to my readers with sharing some real life but also imaginative adventures to go with it as well. I think one of the biggest things when it comes to my dogs is I wish I knew what they were thinking all the time. So my husband and I, we always kind of in our heads were like, oh, she's saying this or she's saying that.

[00:18:08.350] - Alondra Bustos

Phoebe's looking at us like she doesn't want to be here. She hates it here right now. So I wanted to bring some fun into I mean, I think our dogs, we've had them for a long time, so we've kind of gone through ups and downs with them. And I personally didn't have such a huge love for dogs, if I'm being honest, before we got Phoebe. And slowly dogs started to grow on me. So whenever we meet other dogs or something like that, and there's always a story behind their dogs, there's always good and bad. And I myself felt like there should be a book or like a story, a little biography of all dogs because they live through so much, and us as the caretakers for them, we live through so much with them. So I wanted to bring some of the real life experiences that we share with dogs, but also bring some imagination to it. I think for me, the life of pets was a big inspiration. Those movies were a huge inspiration for me, but they were also, like in my not so realistic viewpoint. I was like, they probably really do that.

[00:19:47.470] - Alondra Bustos

They just go out and save the world or something. But, yeah, I wanted to bring those two components together. But overall, the Phoebe and Penny series will be mostly full of journeys and fun and a lot of learning in the good characteristics and the positive characteristics that I feel like they bring out in us, but also to what my husband and I have experienced, they bring out in each other. And it's good and bad characteristics that our dogs specifically will bring out in each other. Yeah, it's beautiful. And we're always, like, in awe. And we never thought that the little one, Phoebe, would become more braver once we got Penny, which is the yes, she's three and Phoebe is now six. So there's a big age know, and unknowingly, we just started really noticing that Phoebe was becoming a bit more braver once Penny showed up in the picture. So that in itself really inspired me to know stories and bring a dog to life, in a sense, the way.

[00:21:18.990] - Dori Durbin

You have the story written, too, you can see a lot of parallels between the two of them as dogs and also as siblings. And so I think that perspective is kind of a fun thing, too, because you can see okay, there's the instigator, maybe the manipulator, the follower.

[00:21:39.230] - Alondra Bustos

The teamwork.

[00:21:40.750] - Dori Durbin

Right. Teamwork together, working against the parents. Yeah. So I think that's a fun element, too. Do you happen to have that book there that you could share with us?

[00:21:51.350] - Alondra Bustos

Okay, so here it goes. The Phoebe and Penny series, their world. In Spanish, it would be la serie Phoebe, Penny, sumundo. We walk around our neighborhood and we see our neighbor dogs along our path. Penny always wants to say hi to every dog we see. I love smelling all the plants on the path. They all smell so good. During our walks, we sometimes stop at the dog park. Let's do it. We can stop at the park for a little bit. I don't love the dog park as much as Penny does. She whines when we walk past and don't go inside to play. There's a lot of dogs today. Sometimes the dog park makes me nervous. All the dogs come up to me and say hi, to say hi and smell me at once. It's scary. Go on, Phoebe. It's okay. One thing that Penny has taught me is to be brave in the dog park. Watching her play makes me feel confident.

[00:23:04.970] - Dori Durbin

I love it, and it's fun to hear some of the Spanish in there, too. Will you read that last speech in Spanish?

[00:23:11.310] - Alondra Bustos

Yes. Of diosa vamos vivi estavian dolos pero SEMA serkan asaludarme iaurme Alamis maves SS pantoso una kosa kepeni me ayen senado s as valiente paraperos berla hugar meda comfianza.

[00:23:41.970] - Dori Durbin

I love it.

[00:23:43.100] - Alondra Bustos

Thank you.

[00:23:44.970] - Dori Durbin

So, in general, what is your biggest hope that kids or parents can learn from your book?

[00:23:50.860] - Alondra Bustos

I think for this book, definitely.

[00:23:57.470] - Dori Durbin

I.

[00:23:57.940] - Alondra Bustos

Really do hope that they will, of course, practice their Spanish skills. But throughout the book, I think I intentionally placed a lot of, like, a family component to it, but also a component for them to be adventurous, for them to strive to be brave. But also, I hope that with this book, that it really opens up more intentional reading. I do think that sometimes as parents, in my experience, it's like, okay, let's read the book. We're going to get our nightly reading done. But as an educator, throughout the years, my circle time when it comes to reading books has changed quite a bit. At first, it was more like, okay, let's read the book. We're going to get through the book, and then we might get to talk about the book afterwards, but then with trainings and experience and mentors that I've had the pleasure of working along with, it's changed to where the book is more of a reflection piece. It can be brought to life. It can be expanded into more than just reading the book. So that's exactly why at the end of the book, I did place some open ended reflection questions for parents to talk about at the end of the book.

[00:25:42.670] - Alondra Bustos

Or maybe it's just one question that they focus on when reading the book, but really for the book to be like, oh, what if we do this? Or what if we think about if this changed? Or what if Phoebe didn't go to the park that day? Or something like that. And really bringing out the creativity and the problem solving skills in children as they read the book, but also more so there's also some components in there where they are able to learn a little bit outside of just the book. So there's a component to where there's a list of popular toxic plants. So nowadays everybody's like a plant mom or plant dad, right? Plants are in right now. So I wanted to add in that little bit because I myself, when I started doing my Fair collection of plants, I started learning about all the different toxic plants. So that in itself is something that's good to teach children about so that they know. And it sparks up conversation, which is what I hope the book provides for people that do read it, is that it'll spark up conversation, spark up creativity, it'll spark up inquisitive questions about the dogs or just maybe their own dog's, like, what do they do when we leave?

[00:27:28.320] - Alondra Bustos

What do Max and Bella do when we leave? And that they start to make those connections, not just with the book, but their real life to what they're living. And essentially, that's what I hope that readers get out from my book.

[00:27:43.670] - Dori Durbin

Yeah, I definitely think they will. And I love the bonding time that you've planted in there, whether it's through the plants, through conversations about the dogs. You also have hidden sloths that they can find, so there's more time to spend together, being aware of details, being attentive. So, yeah, I think that definitely is a part of your book.

[00:28:05.340] - Alondra Bustos

You did such a great job of really planting all the secret sloths in there. So definitely if you grab a copy of the book, be on the lookout for those. It's not on every page, but it's very fun, and they're really easy to miss, so that makes it even more fun for the kids and where's Waldo was, like, such a huge hit. So I think that component to this book is going to take it up a notch. And I really do hope and I do think that it'll give the readers sort of something to be excited about. Even with just sharing the book, I can already see some of the kids that I work with be like, no, you have to look for the sloth. Look for it, look for it. I'm not going to tell you. So they get really competitive over stuff like that. So just in that component as well. I think this book has definitely more fun to write than my last, if I have to be honest. By all means. They hold and to me, they have different meanings, each of them. And that in itself is also beautiful too, as an author to have different books.

[00:29:21.100] - Alondra Bustos

And it's like I don't have a favorite.

[00:29:23.210] - Dori Durbin

Well, let me ask you this, because favorite was my next question. What is your favorite part about being an author and writing the books?

[00:29:30.250] - Alondra Bustos

I feel like for me it changes for this book I really loved. And my favorite part was the process of gathering ideas and writing. It was one of my favorite parts only because it really gave me a lot of time to reflect on the time that we've had together with our dogs and really remember all the memories we've shared and the things that have happened. But also my favorite, favorite thing is to meet the young readers or even just any educator that I meet. And they resonate with having rich bilingual literacy. All of those engagements and those connections that I make with people, they really fill my author bucket and it's really empowering and it's really inspirational. And that's one of the reasons why I choose to do pop up events because they're kind of like my I really go there just to fill my inspiration in my motivational bucket. I want to meet some people. So those two would definitely be my favorite parts. But every author's favorite part is going to be seeing the physical copy in front of them and flipping through the pages and seeing what the months of work that go into writing a book in real life.

[00:31:21.000] - Alondra Bustos

For me, I really do think that it's the process. The process, all in all, is my favorite. And then the end part where you're actually signing the book. Because for me, when you have the book in person, it's kind of like that deflating balloon feeling where the buildup is there, right? So that's the process. There's the build up. But then when the book is here and you're like, oh, finally. And then the balloon kind of just deflates very slowly. It's not like a boom sort of feeling. It's more of just like sort of feeling. And then when you get to talking about the book and promoting the book and meeting people and hearing feedback about the book, that's when the fire kind of lights up again and you're like, this is why.

[00:32:16.250] - Dori Durbin

Yeah, I think that's so true. I'm going to lump two questions together. So the first question is what are your next steps as an author? And the second is, when can they find your books and where can they find your books?

[00:32:30.360] - Alondra Bustos

Okay, so my next steps, I have a couple of things in mind. I've been working on a poetry book, so I'm so excited and eager to put that out, but really, I'm itching on a beached theme book. I am like a full on water girl, so perhaps a surf book, perhaps maybe like, a Penny and Phoebe beach theme book. But my book, all of them can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles. If you just search up Alondra bustos Garcia on the search engine, you'll be able to find my books on there. I am also on Instagram at Alondra Laautora, and my website is under construction for the moment, but you are more than welcome to find me on Instagram. Reach out. And I don't have a problem with mailing out physical copies, signed copies as well, but Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and Walmart will have copies as well.

[00:33:40.470] - Dori Durbin

Fantastic. Well, I can't wait for people to see your next book and for you to be able to see kids with it. It'll be so exciting.

[00:33:48.370] - Alondra Bustos

Yes.

[00:33:49.690] - Dori Durbin

Thank you so much for your time today.

[00:33:52.600] - Alondra Bustos

Yes, thank you. Bye.