The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Lobo reimagines the beloved fairy tale with a vibrant Spanish twist, blending language learning, cultural elements, and artwork into a captivating bilingual experience. What inspired you to add a Spanish twist to The Three Little Pigs?

I’m a big advocate of language learning and believe everyone should have an opportunity to learn a second or even a third language. I found that infusing language into a classic tale that many already know would be a great way to spark the love of language learning. The intent is for kids (and adults) to feel like they can learn foreign language words easily without feeling overwhelmed. My hope is that these families incorporate those words into their daily lives and continue building their language vocabulary.

How did you select the 30 artists featured in the book, and what was that collaboration like?

This was the most difficult part of the book making process. We had many more candidates that wanted to be part of the project but not enough pages to go around. I prioritized having artists from different parts of the world as I found that everyone had, at one time or another, heard the story of the Three Little Pigs. I thought it would be great to showcase how this story transcended borders. I had to look through all of their art portfolios and see how best to sprinkle their art style across the book. The collaboration was tough as I had multiple artists working on different art pieces at a time. I had one amazing artist, Darya Shch., develop the character designs based on distinct features (colors, sizes, etc.) and then I had to think ahead on certain elements (example daytime vs. nighttime) to make sure the pages flowed into a cohesive story. As I worked with the artists, I had them use the character designs to keep the characters cohesive but did allow them to have some artistic freedom to create the page based on their imagination.

What challenges did you face in balancing the classic story with bilingual learning elements?

I originally had a lot more words in Spanish. I had to scale back to make the story flow better. I had to be selective of the words used to keep it simple while still moving the needle on language substance. I also had to balance grammar components as the grammar can sometimes be different between English and Spanish. This led to the inventory of Spanish words used in the story today.

What classic tale would you love to reimagine next, and how would you approach it differently?

This is a great question and one that I have thought about quite a bit. I’m looking to do two things next. The first one is I’m looking to create a Spanish version of The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Lobo that introduces readers to English words. Both of these English and Spanish versions can stand independently or be used jointly if the reader is looking to immerse themselves more into either of those languages. Also, given the success of the book and the great experiences I’ve had with getting to know so many talented artists from around the world, I’m looking to do a similar collaboration project with Little Roja Riding Hood as one of the next books in the series. This time, I’m contemplating giving artists the ability to collaborate on the same page as someone else to create a joint masterpiece and/or adding a few double page spreads to allow artists to immerse the readers into the story further.

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