Ep 131 | How Eva Lou Runs a Multi-Lingual Children's Book Publishing Company

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

My guest on this episode is Eva Lou a writer and publisher and the founder of Madeleine Editions, a multi-lingual children's book publishing company, that offers books in English, French and Mandarin Chinese. Madeleine Editions published Monster Dance, a children's book created to help children deal with and understand the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. For every copy of Monster Dance sold, a donation will be made to Donate PPE.

Eva spoke with me about the uniqueness of what Madeleine Editions is doing with their digital books, which are a multisensory experience, that combines animation, and the beauty of the spoken word and music. She shared a particularly memorable story that involved the recording of music for the book, The Little Baby Airplane.

We also spoke about her personal writing projects and her perspectives on what It takes to be a writer.

Here's a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

• How Madeleine Editions got involved in publishing the children's book, Monster Dance
• What it took to get Monster Dancepublished so quickly and in a timely fashion
• What inspired Eva to start Madeleine Editions
• How Madeleine Editions publishes multi-lingual books in three languages: Chinese, English and French
• The Taste of a Strawberry, the first book that led to the creation of Madeleine Editions'
• How Madeleine Editions' books combine animation, the spoken word and music
• How Madeleine Editions collaborated with Deutsche Grammophon:
• How 3-7 years of age is a critical time for children to be exposed languages
• How Taiwanese supermodel Chiling Lin (林志玲) got involved as the Chinese narrator for Monster Dance
• How Eva's personal background set her on the path to run a multi-lingual publishing house
• How Eva relates differently she when speaks English, Mandarin Chinese and French
• Eva's connection to Taiwan
• The many different languages spoken in Eva's household
• The joys and challenges of running Madeleine Editions
• What it was like working with illustrator Guy Gilchrist
• One of the highlights of her work with Madeleine Editions involved the recording of music for the book, The Little Baby Airplane
• The uniqueness of what Madeline Editions does as a multilingual children's book publisher
• How Madeleine Editions' books can expose children to other nonnative languages
• The musicality of language
• Eva's career as a writer
• The novel that Eva has been working on that is related to Taiwan
• Madeleine Editions' plans to adapt The Little Princefor children 3-7 years of age
• The series of essays that Eva is working on about homes vs. houses
• Eva's writing routine
• The difference between a career in publishing vs. being a writer
• Eva's perspective on being a writer and what it takes to be a writer

Related Links:

Madeleine Editions: https://madeleineeditions.com/

Madeleine Editions on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MadeleineEditions

Madeleine Editions on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madeleine_editions/

Monster Dance (On the Apple App Store): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/monster-dance/id1533424890

Monster Dance on Apple iBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/monster-dance/id1533431014

Monster Dance on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Monster-Dance-Eva-Lou/dp/0578747707

Monster Dance on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.madeleineeditions.ebook.monsterdance&hl=en_US&gl=US

Monster Dance's Kickstarter campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/madeleineeditions/monster-dance

The Taste of a Strawberry: https://madeleineeditions.com/stories/the-taste-of-a-strawberry/

Deutsche Grammophon: https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/

The Little Baby Airplane: https://madeleineeditions.com/stories/little-baby-airplane/

Guy Gilchrist's website: https://www.aguygilchristproduction.com/

d'extases rapture by Eva Lou: https://www.amazon.com/dextases-rapture/dp/2851573047

228 (February 28, 1947 incident): https://www.taiwandc.org/228-intr.htm

Donate PPE: https://donateppe.org/

Talking Taiwan Episode 120: Dr. Karen Tsai Brings Monster Dance Children's Book to Life: https://talkingtaiwan.com/dr-karen-tsai-brings-monster-dance-childrens-book-to-life-ep-120/