Hi everyone,

I’m Elisavet Arkolaki, and it’s great connecting with you through Multilingual Families! I’m a multilingual mom raising two beautiful multilingual and ethnically mixed children. I’m also a children’s book author, mainly writing and publishing bilingual books. I have lived in six countries, and my home now, most of the time, is in Norway.

My husband and I are passionate about traveling; inspired by global learning, we raise our children between countries, cultures, and languages. I write to build cultural understanding and sensitivity in young children while they are still eager to learn, and to entertain, help, and support them in their bilingual journey. The bilingual books I publish are ideal for early readers: white backgrounds (except books for a younger audience where the background has color), large and easy-to-read fonts, the image on one page and the text on the other, modern themes relevant to bilingual children, bilingual main characters and families that speak more than one language, etc. These books are available in 50+ languages with progressively longer stories from one book to the other. More languages and editions can be added depending on demand.

I have an academic background in foreign language teaching, translation, and marketing. I graduated from the University of Liverpool with a degree in Global Marketing (MSc), the University of Athens (EKΠΑ) with a degree in French Philology/Language and Literature (BA), and I was awarded a certificate of proficiency in English from the University of Cambridge. I speak four languages at different levels of fluency. I’ve worked for many years with translations, marketing, project management, content writing, and writing, in general, in various forms.

“A Sea of Stars”, “Where am I from?”, “Cousins Forever”, “Happiness Street”, “Nelly’s Box”, and “Summer with Grandpa” are the titles of my bilingual books and as of right now close to 65,000 books and eBooks are in the hands of readers (November 2024, 15,000+ eBooks have been offered and downloaded for free).

You can find them in all Amazon stores , Barnes & Noble, and many more. They’re also available in many public libraries worldwide and you could also request that your local library purchase these books.

As an example, click here to check out my Spanish-English bilingual books , French-English bilingual books, Italian-English bilingual books .

Read-aloud videos of some of these stories can be watched on PEaCH bilingualfamily.eu YouTube channel here. I’ve been an ambassador of this EU, Erasmus+ funded project for bilingual and multilingual families and I collaborated with other ambassadors and readers to create read-aloud videos of “Cousins Forever”, “Happiness Street” and “Nelly’s Box” in many languages for the public to access for free.

Book titles (target age group) and languages:

A Sea of Stars (sarting from toddlers) -> 25+ languages, boy and girl editions

Where am I from? (3+) -> 35+ languages

Happiness Street (4+) -> 45+ languages

Cousins Forever (4+) -> 50+ languages

Nelly’s Box (5+) -> 35+ languages

Summer with Grandpa (5-6+)  -> 35+ languages

• Afrikaans • Albanian • Arabic • Armenian • Basque • Bosnian • Bulgarian • Catalan • Chinese (Traditional & Simplified) • Croatian • Czech • Danish • Dutch • English • Estonian • Filipino / Tagalog • Finnish • French • Galician • Georgian • German • Greek • Hindi • Hebrew • Hungarian • Icelandic • Indonesian • Irish • Italian • Japanese • Korean • Latvian • Lithuanian • Luxembourgish • Macedonian • Malaysian • Maltese • Norwegian • Polish • Portuguese (PT) • Portuguese (BR) • Romanian • Russian • Serbian • Slovak • Slovene • Spanish • Swedish • Thai • Turkish • Ukrainian • Vietnamese • Welsh

Moreover, I have curated the guidebook “How to Raise Confident Multicultural Children” which you can access and read for free on my blog. 

Index of How to Raise Confident Multicultural Children

(please click on the titles of the chapters to access the texts)

1. Inventing identities for our multicultural children by Elisavet Arkolaki
2. The debate over multiculturalism and what we can learn from the Canadian model by Elisavet Arkolaki
3. My identity crisis growing up in numerous cultures by Yui Mikuriya
4. Why urging our children to embrace different cultures and learn different languages matters by Dr. Ute Limacher-Riebold
5. The 5 most common challenges a parent faces while raising a multicultural kid and how to address them by Vivian Chiona, Dr. Brigitte Vittrup, Elisavet Arkolaki
6. 5 mistakes parents make when trying to raise bilingual children by Rita Rosenback
7. Language delays in multilingual children: what are they and what to do about them by Dr. Mary-Pat O’Malley-Keighran
8. Raising multilingual children with additional needs abroad by Dr. Ute Limacher-Riebold
9. Confident moms raise confident kids – On finding your tribe abroad by Lisa Ferland
10. Media influences on children by Dr. Brigitte Vittrup
11. The impact of culture on the education of the young by Brian Vassallo
12. Promoting tolerance, practical tips – What we should do to enhance religious tolerance at home (parents) and at school (teachers) by Brian Vassallo
13. Crossing the Deep Cultural Divide by Tamara Yousry
14. The stories you should tell your multicultural kid every day by Elisavet Arkolaki

    Thank you for reading!

Note from Ute:
Elisavet’s Cousins Forever was included as a recommendation at twu.edu and World of Words. Where am I from is used with second graders and the BabyLab from the University of Plymouth (UK) uses Elisavet’s books with various age groups of students in their different language schools, i.e. French and Romanian.

Malta’s National Literacy Agency has supported Eisavet’s work since the publication of her first book together with the Vestfold libraries in Norway. Four of her titles were published in Maltese in collaboration with Malta’s National Literacy Agency; her books are available at their literacy resources centers and school libraries and are used by teachers teaching multilingual learners in elementary schools.
The Multilingual Library (DFB), a service provided by the National Library of Norway in Oslo, Norway, has also rendered her books available in many languages across libraries in Norway. DFB’s role is to support Norwegian libraries in their provision of library services to a multilingual and multicultural population.