Author Description

Charming student illustrations depict the life cycle of the Ethiopian Painted Lady butterfly as it begins as a tiny egg. As the egg hatches and becomes a caterpillar and then emerges from its cocoon with wet wings drying under the sun, emerging readers will grown their vocabulary and fluency with side by side text in French and English. Repeating phrases help reinforce key words and encourage literacy. Jus as days and days of sun will help the egg transform into a beautiful butterfly, days and days of reading will transform your student into a confident reader. Part of the Ready, Set, Go! series of bilingual early readers by Open Hears Big Dreams, an organization devoted to increasing literacy in indigenous Ethiopian languages. Ready Set Go Books, an Open Hearts Big Dreams Project, is focused on increasing the literacy rate in Ethiopia through giving readers books with stories in their heart languages, full of colorful illustrations with Ethiopian settings and details. Profits from book sales are used to create, print, and distribute more Ready Set Go Books to kids in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country. Ethiopia’s population is 44% children, ages 0-14 (43 million out of 97 million total). Only 5.5% of children attend pre-school or kindergarten, and the adult literacy rate is 49%. Our books are based on wise Ethiopian sayings that often rhyme in Amharic. If an adult says the first half, many children can chant the second half. Sometimes the meaning of these sayings is clear. Sometimes it has to be puzzled out and argued over. But sayings and idioms and proverbs help people express truths and beliefs in unusual ways. Since late 2017, OHBD has published over 100 unique #ReadySetGo dual language titles in four Ethiopian languages plus English and has plans to publish another 100 titles and add more languages in the coming years. New titles and/or languages are added monthly; follow our author page to get new release announcements. Open Hearts Big D