Learn Mandarin with Gordon & Li Li!

Yes, it’s true!  I’m preparing to launch my very first app for Gordon & Li Li: Learn Animals in Mandarin.  I had to do it.  My sons, 7 and 5, are all about iPhone and iPad apps and aren’t interested in my board books anymore.  So sad.  (Luckily, our little Stevie came along 13 months ago and is loving Gordon & Li Li!)

It has been an overwhelming, exciting, scary, what-did-I-get-myself-into kind of experience for me, especially being the technology challenged person that I am.  Seriously.  I’m the person who bribes friends with a homemade dinner so they’ll show me how to back up my computer or download new software.  It’s embarrassing.  I should have kept up my apple One to One classes.

Ok, back to the app.  I chose to turn my book, Gordon & Li Li: Learn Animals in Mandarin, into an app because it’s my sons’ favorite.  It will be available only for the iPad.  As much as I love my iPhone, the app just works better with the bigger screen on the iPad, especially for the tracing screens.   The tracing option is where the child learns to write the Chinese character.  I’m secretly smiling when my boys ask if they can keep practicing their characters.  It’s like when they ask for seconds of the ginger bread I made with an entire head of pureed broccoli in it.

Nam Doan, my über talented illustrator for Learn Animals in Mandarin and Count in Mandarin, is an animator by trade, so it was a breeze for him to bring Gordon & Li Li to life.  The first time I saw the animations on my iPad, I was like a kid on Christmas.  I was clapping, oohing and ahhing, and basically just giddy.

The goal was to launch my app on January 23rd, Chinese New Year.  The elves are working around the clock to see it happen, so stay tuned!

It made my day when I received a wonderful email from a mother, whose son had written an entire page of Chinese numbers!  He attends a tri-lingual school that teaches, English, Mandarin & Japanese.  (How amazing is that?)   His mother asked whether he learned to write the numbers at school.  He said, “No Mommy, Gordon & Li Li taught me!”  Now, if only I could get my boys to be that industrious!

The Dragon Boat Festival at MOCA (Museum of the Chinese in America) was an amazing event.  There was something for everyone to enjoy.  My sons loved making paper dragon puppets, I enjoyed the screen printing, and my husband got inspired perusing the beautiful, modern design of this museum.

What’s fun about my book events is, I never know who is going to show up.  So when I met a family who traveled all the way down to Chinatown from the Upper West Side to be there, I was thrilled.  Believe me, living in Manhattan, it’s a big deal to venture all the way uptown or downtown for an event, especially with children!  Their son brought his copy of my first book, “Gordon & Li Li: Words for Everyday” because he wanted me to autograph it for him.  Awww!  And to top it off, this little boy’s Dad’s name is Gordon and his Aunt’s name is Lily and they’re from California, like me!

After my readings of “Gordon & Li Li: Learn Animals in Mandarin” and “Gordon & Li Li: Count in Mandarin”, the children had their choice of making a puppet of paper doll of Gordon and Li Li.  It was a fun afternoon for all!

My husband’s co-worker’s daughter is in love with Nick Jr’s, Ni Hao, Kai-lan and insisted on a Ni Hao, Kai-lan themed party.  Her mother saw my book and had the bright idea of giving it away as the party favor.  Not that I’m trying to toot my own horn, but isn’t an educational, sturdy board book a lot better than those cheapy toys that you never know what to do with when you get home?

I just boarded my Virgin America flight to sunny Los Angeles.  I’m looking forward to a break from the freezing cold in Brooklyn.  I have mixed emotions of excitement and nervousness since I’m not sure what to expect from my first book tour.  The planning of seven events and five flights has been all consuming.  My poor boys have been watching entirely too much television, while mommy makes another call or answers another email.

I’ve been looking forward to my joint Chinese New Year event with Mandarin Seeds at apple seeds since my first one last year.  And even though the weather report was threatening snow, I knew it wouldn’t prevent New Yorkers from venturing out.

Our family LOVES the play space, gift shop, and healthy snacks at apple seeds, so there was no need to bribe the kids or my husband, for that matter.  He knows that when we go, the kids are completely taken care of.  Everything is clean, interactive, spacious, well organized, and so easy to keep track of your little ones.

The kids were really cute acting out the animals from my animal book and were amazing as they counted all the way up to 100 (yì bǎi).  That’s my son acting like a yā zi (duck).

Mandarin Treehouse had amazing art projects for the Year of the Tiger.  The children got to decorate their own Chinese Drums and color cute Year of the Tiger sheets.  To finish things off, they handed out “hong bao”, lucky red envelopes to all the children.

As if mingling with apple seeds members, catching up with friends, watching the children have a great time wasn’t enough, I found a new dentist for my boys, to boot!  Dr. Lisa Bienstock left her table display to buy my books, so of course we got to talking.  She was extremely friendly, sweet to my boys, and came highly recommended by a friend who came to support me.  Talk about coincidence!  I’m calling for an appointment tomorrow…

I’m so excited to launch the newest books in my “Gordon & Li Li” series in the city I’ve called home for the last 13 years…New York!  I chose Chinese New Year 2009, to launch my first book, Words for Everyday by default.  I missed my Christmas deadline and ended up not receiving my shipment until mid-January.  As my mother taught me from an early age, to turn lemons into lemonade, I decided that Chinese New Year would be an even better launch date since my book is about learning Mandarin.  So now, this is my official launch date for all future “Gordon & Li Li” books.

I kicked off the launch of “Gordon & Li Li: Learn Animals in Mandarin” and “Gordon & Li Li: Count in Mandarin” with a book reading at a charming new bookstore in Fort Greene called Greenlight Books.  It was a joint Chinese New Year event with Lango Kids, a foreign language organization who specializes in Mandarin, Spanish & French.  The children decorated Hong Bao (Lucky Red Envelopes) using glitter, sequins, stickers, and colored tissue paper.  The event wrapped up with a Mandarin lesson from Gordon & Li Li.  The children were excellent participants, as well as their parents.