Where am I from? – Ben nereden geliyorum? A Turkish English bilingual children’s book (Turkish edition) (Turkish Bilingual Books – Fostering Creativity in Kids)

A fundamental question of life, answered by a child in a simple but powerful way.

Claire Annette Noland, children’s librarian, reading specialist, and an author of easy readers, board books, and picture books for young children.

“A group of children come together wondering where they come from. Each child thinks they know. It is the country where they live. But how can that be since they each live in different places? From Malta to Australia, each child describes their mode of transportation which includes swimming with a dolphin, flying on a dragon, and riding on a lion’s back. None of them, however, can agree on the one place they are all from until the youngest child reveals the answer.

The brilliant illustrations are a perfect match for the text as the author and illustrator worked together to create this stunning book. Amazingly, the illustrations are graffiti art painted on the walls of elementary schools.

Why this WHERE AM I FROM? should be added to your shelves: It includes a wonderful group of diverse children with mixed cultural and linguistic heritages. Each spread shows a child with a background setting and animals from their country of origin. The children travel to their destination in fabulous ways mixing fantasy with fact. Who wouldn’t want to hop in a kangaroo’s pocket? The detailed graffiti illustrations will entice children to find new things with each rereading. This book will be a good addition to elementary school geography and social studies curriculum and will encourage lively discussions. The text is lyrical and kid-friendly and perfect for emerging readers.”

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Germaine Moran Koskina, PhD, Adjunct Professor and 2-Way Dual Language Bilingual Teacher.

“My 2nd grade dual language classroom enjoyed Elisavet Arkolaki’s new book ¿De dónde soy? – Where Am I from?

This is how we read the book: We read each page in both languages to make it comprehensible. I showed it on the screen so the children could read along and notice the cognates. As we were reading, we went to Google maps to find the country mentioned in the page and look at photos of it, and then we looked up the creature mentioned on the page. We traveled around the world and learned about legends and animals close to extinction. We also learned about the art form of graffiti. Great book! I wanted to broaden students’ background knowledge using books and Google. Some may never travel out of our town but will have ‘traveled the world’ in our class and have learned all about it!“

To illustrate this book, Platon painted colorful and whimsical, freehand spray paint graffiti across public elementary schools in Athens, Greece.

He transformed boring, dirty, and deteriorating walls into pieces of art to be forever enjoyed by the children.