Sir Smith and Óscar - Sea Animals

Sir Smith and Óscar is a bilingual book that I have created and illustrated for boys and girls, which is based on two fun characters:

Sir Smith, an apple from Newcastle, England

And Óscar, an olive from Seville, Spain

These characters present clues about features and characteristics of 12 sea animals, so that the children can guess and discover what the animals are, while learning English and Spanish.

Although this book is for children, it can be used by anyone who wants to start learning both English and Spanish, since the text is easy to understand, with a page for each language and a bilingual dictionary.

It is very important from early childhood to raise awareness of the environment and respect for animals. Aside from teaching English and Spanish, the book aims to raise awareness of the importance of our oceans and animals which live in them.

Our oceans and seas face the harmful consequences of some human actions, such as over fishing, pollution and climate change. Many marine species such as the vaquita, the manatee and the gray whale, are already in danger of extinction and are about to disappear.

This book is a colorful and fun introduction to marine life, with an emphasis on language in our increasingly multilingual society.

We know that in the first years of life, we are a sponge for information, and it has been shown that learning a new language in early childhood, not only enhances attention, but enhances critical thinking skills, creativity and flexibility of the mind in young children.

About the author

My name is Richard, and I'm an Englishman living in Andalucia. I have spent 4 years teaching English to children in Spain, and after rediscovering my love of drawing, I'd like to take this chance to share my creation with you.

As an English teacher I have been able to see that children learn quickly through games and drawings. This book can be used as an educational resource in class and is a tool to learn names of marine animals in English/Spanish and in turn discover some characteristics of these animals that they did not know.

Where your contributions will go

Your support will go towards the ISBN number, the printing, binding and distribution of books, badges and stickers. The book will be A4 landscape, 297mm x 210mm.

Project timetable

I hope to deliver the project within 2 months of receiving funding, before Christmas.

In the future, I would like to expand the series to include animals from all continents, so this is only a beginning.

Animated gifs

The characters have also been transformed into a free animated gif resource.