For the Love of Picturebooks

Mama Reads is a space dedicated to the art of learning and expanding our imagination, through soulful picturebooks.

Stories have the power to transport us, to paint the unimaginable, to take our minds on the most extraordinary journeys. They also carry the potential to portray ways of life and worldviews, to open our hearts & minds to the diversity of human experience. Picturebooks are timeless and interactive, they create connection, between art and words, reader and child, child and their deepest imagination. I’m dedicated to finding inquisitive, inclusive, and engaging picturebooks - and to expand their reach, beyond their original country and language of publication. Through storytelling, book reviews, translation, as well as international rights & representation, I seek to expand the reach of artistic and soulful picturebooks.

Ways We Can Work Together: I connect with publishers, educators, and fellow creatives to broaden the reach of artistic & soulful picturebooks.

  • Picturebook Consulting

    For authors, illustrators, parents, educators, libraries, publishers, and bookstores

    Picturebook Reviews

    Picturebook Recommendations

  • Translation & Literary Services

    For authors, illustrators, editors, picturebook makers, and publishers worldwide

    International Book Rights & Representation

    English - Portuguese Translation

  • Storytelling Circles & Workshops

    For schools, libraries, and bookstores, and other public community spaces

    Storytelling Circles

    Creative Expression & Literacy Workshops

  • "Great ideas, it has been said, come into the world as gently as doves. Perhaps then, if we listen attentively, we shall hear, amid the uproar of empires and nations, a faint flutter of wings, the gentle stirring of life and hope."

    Albert Camus

  • "Picture books, in the present era, enjoy a status as a culture form to be enjoyed by people of all ages. It is a precious and versatile art that has already left the confines of paper behind, shattering the boundaries of its own genre and fusing with various other forms of art and imagery."

     CJ Picture Book Festival in South Korea Manifesto

  • "To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled is a spark."

    Victor Hugo

  • "I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage."

    Roald Dahl

  • "Damn everything but the circus!"

    e. e. cummings

  • "There are three ways of writing for children... the third way, which is the only one I could ever use myself, consists of writing a children's story because a children's story is the best art form for something you have to say"

    C.S. Lewis

  • "The picture book, which appears to be the cosiest and most gentle of genres, actually produces the greatest social and aesthetic tensions in the whole field of children's literature."

    Sheila Egoff

A decade ago, I wrote about motherhood and children’s literature in a blog called One More Story Told. I transferred a couple of those blog posts onto this space and soon I’ll begin reviewing picturebooks again. If you have a book suggestion to be featured, please share on here.

I’m a literary consultant, book reviewer, and storyteller. As a lifelong lover of books with a background in publishing and community-based research across Brazil, Canada, and Mexico, my goal is to strengthen the creative landscape between cultures and the expansive reach of picturebooks. Mama Reads is designed to connect authors, illustrators, publishers, and educators through outstanding picturebooks. I review and translate books, offer storytelling circles, as well as literary services as a foreign rights and representation liasion. Picturebooks are an invitation to travel, both through time and space; a life giving expression of what it means to be human; a learning experience; and a way for us to feel connected to one another and to the subtleties of our existence. I believe storytelling is both art and activism. And that a single picturebook can affect the way we sees ourselves in the world—and our sense of belonging in it. For consulting, services, or collaborations, get in touch — I’d love to hear from you.

About Me