About

Hello! I'm Helen Wu, author, and creator of the Curious Little Bao Bilingual Children's Book series 好奇的小宝双语童书系列! My vision for this series is to introduce a collection of simple and practical bilingual books based on my real-life experiences raising my toddler. This first book in the collection - Curious Little Bao Likes to Help 好奇的小宝爱帮忙 - will focus on being a good helper!

These 6" x 6" board books will contain 24 pages of whimsical yet realistic illustrations combined with simple sentences and repetitive keywords to help little ones remember the theme and messages. The books will be available in both Simplified and Traditional Chinese, with Pinyin, and English.

Why This Series

While raising my toddler, it didn’t take long for me to realize there aren't many bilingual books on the market.  Especially ones that teach toddlers basic social skills, manners, and behaviors like there are in English. I often found myself translating my toddler's English books into Chinese as I was reading to him. It’s something I know not all parents can do without assistance. 

In addition to the lack of bilingual books in general, within what is available, the main character is most often a girl or an animal. Even the bilingual books I bought from China are filled with non-Asian boy characters or animals because they’re just translated versions of English bestsellers. Being a boy mom, I was having a difficult time finding books for my boys to identify with. That’s when I knew I wanted to do something about it, because representation matters! I want my boys to be able to see themselves in literature and to be proud of their heritage. 

I want to create books to help bridge this gap that includes illustrations Asian toddlers identify with, translations with romanization that enable all parents to read to their children in Chinese, and messages that provide simple, repeatable phrases, which enable children to commit them to memory.

Book Format

This will be a series of 6" x 6" board books containing 24 pages of whimsical yet realistic illustrations combined with simple sentences and repetitive keywords to help little ones retain the theme.

The books will be available in both Simplified and Traditional Chinese, with Pinyin, and English.

Illustrator

Tammy Do is a Vietnamese illustrator. Tammy is pursuing a professional career as an illustrator, working mainly on illustrations for children's books, advertising, and magazines. With illustration, she is able to free her inner child and let the girl wander through places and stories. Tammy’s drawings demonstrate a whimsical point of view and embrace the culture where she comes from with the use of bright and vibrant colors. In her free time, Tammy enjoys drinking milk tea, sketching, and taking care of her plants.