It's been a while. Since moving from the Marshall Islands, I've lived in Montreal, earned an MFA in Writing and Literature from Bennington College, published a few articles, moved to Washington, DC, published a book, moved to Nicaragua, and got a job teaching third grade and astronomy in addition to writing and editing and living and loving.

It's been busy.

But certainly not without reward. In substituting third grade at the Pierre and Marie Curie School in Managua, Nicaragua, I was able to do a shortened version of The Unbound Bookmaker Project. For their final third-quarter grade in English, my students wrote their own short stories in English. I'm happy to publish them here on my site (split across three pages), and I'm proud of my students and their work. The ability to write and communicate across cultural boundaries is not to be underestimated.

The new Marshallese-English children's book Life in the Marshall Islands: Then and Now was successfully delivered to its authors this past week. Each author received a copy of the book that he or she helped write and illustrate. The fifth graders especially liked the "About Me" section. For more wonderful images, please see Deo Keju's Flikr page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/deo_keju/sets/72157644670407034/

Thanks to all those involved in this project! This book may be included in next year's textbook bundle for Ebeye Elementary School. Thanks also to the Marshall Islands Journal, who printed an article in both Marshallese and English about the book on May 9, 2014 (Vol. 45, No. 19, p. 8 and p. 20).

We hope that this book will inspire other Marshallese students to create their own stories and to be proud of their cultural heritage. The book can be found on Amazon here.

We are pleased to announce that the latest book from The Unbound Bookmaker Project has just been published. The 2013–2014 fifth graders at Ebeye Public Elementary School (EPES) have written and illustrated Life in the Marshall Islands: Then and Now. Click here for a look inside the book!

The project was directed by Susannah Prenoveau, an educator on Kwajalein and author of two children's books that her own children helped create. Sarah Jacquier was the editor and designer of this book.

Life in the Marshall Islands: Then and Now is about how traditional life in the Marshall Islands has changed through time. Each child chose an aspect of current Marshallese life and culture—coconuts, boats, shells, birds, money, clothes—and compared it to how it was used in the past.

The book is written in both Marshallese and English, with the help of many Marshallese translators and reviewers.

Many thanks to the students—who are now authors and illustrators—as well as to Ms. Dribo, Ms. Lorennij, the vice principle of EPES, Dori DeBrum, Angelo Lelet, Eltina John, Mesko Alfred, and Leonora Kabua. Supplies were provided by Ethel Nelson, and the educational grant from the Kwajalein Yokwe Yuk Women's Club and the fundraising efforts of Shannon Paulsen's Kwajalein 4-H Cooking Club, as well as additional individual donors, helped fund the project.

Each of the 36 children involved receives a copy of Life in the Marshall Islands, as does the school library.

By Susannah Prenoveau, director of The Unbound Bookmaker Project on Kwajalein Atoll

Inspired by The Unbound Bookmaker Project started in Majuro, I (Susannah Prenoveau) decided to fundraise so that the children of Ebeye could create their own book. Once we raised the necessary funds, we started meeting on Ebeye once a month, beginning in September 2013, with Ms. Dribo’s and Ms. Lorennij’s 5th grade class from Ebeye Public Elementary School.

Because I knew it was a project I couldn’t and didn’t want to do alone and because some of our 4-H cooking club members had raised part of the funding for the project, I set it up as the 4-H Unbound Bookmaker Club for our American and Marshallese teens from the nearby military base on Kwajalein. 

Currently, we are in the final stages of reviewing our work and sending it to our wonderful editors and publishing experts at The Unbound Bookmaker, so I wanted to share some photos from our time with the kids on Ebeye. 

To give you some background of those you will see in the photos, there were 3 dedicated teens who physically came to the school with me to work with the kids one-on-one during the writing and illustration process. There were two other teens who met with me after school at the teen center on Kwajalein to assist with translations. They are not in these photos from the school, but if not for all of these teens and the dedication of the staff and students at the Ebeye Public Elementary School, this book would not have been possible. Thank you to those from afar who provided moral support as well as project supplies and donations.

Look for our new book, Life in the Marshall Islands: Then and Now coming out soon on Amazon.com.

On March 1, 1954, the U.S. conducted one of sixty-seven nuclear tests. This one was code-named Castle Bravo.

The wind carried the nuclear fallout to other atolls in the region, including Rongelap Atoll, where Katner Tima lived as a young boy. This is his account of that day, the evacuation that took place soon thereafter, and how the rest of his life unfolded, including his conversion and dedication to the LDS Church.

The Kindle version of Katner Tima's short account, entitled My Story as a Survivor of U.S. Nuclear Tests in the Marshall Islands, can be found here. The print version will be available on Amazon next week.

Sharlen Smith, WorldTeach volunteer who helped her class produce Takki and His Boat, informed us that she took six of the 12C students from Kwajalein High School to the elementary school, where they read their book to the third grade classes.

She said it was amazing to see them share their work with younger kids and there was one student in particular who was so great with the kids that she told him he should become a teacher.

We are delighted that Marshallese children are teaching other Marshallese children valuable marine safety rules that could someday save their lives, in addition to sharing their excitement about the bookmaking process. Thank you, Sharlen!

One year ago, Heather Jarvis at ABC Radio Australia, an international radio broadcasting program, interviewed Jamie Zvirzdin and Laura Sundblad following the publication of The Important Book about Majuro. It was wonderful to return and report that twelve new Marshallese/English children's books have been published!

Zvirzdin details how the project started, how it unfolded, what the books are like, the importance of bilingual books for Marshallese children, the reactions of the students when they received their books, and more. (Audio clip is on the lower right if you click on the link below.)

While visiting Kwajalein Atoll last month, I was able to meet with Susannah Prenoveau, who has lived on Kwajalein with her family for 15 years now and trains teachers as part of the Child, Youth, and School Services Program on the military base. I was very impressed with her experience and her passion for creating books (See her own books, which her children illustrated, at www.alligatorscoming.com and www.gottaseenathan.com). Susannah is taking charge of The Unbound Bookmaker Project on Kwajalein Atoll and organized an event with the Kwaj and Ebeye 4-H clubs on January 14, 2013.

After we gathered everyone together, I was able to explain to the children and leaders how the project started and what process we follow to publish new children's books. Susannah then read The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown (Ethel Nelson's inspiration for creating The Important Book about Majuro) and parts of The Important Book about Majuro to the kids. Susannah will be fundraising to do more books about Ebeye (interested parties please contact me).

The children were then given blank mini books and markers so they could create their own books, and after some snacks they shared some of their stories.

Thanks to Susannah, Jared, and everyone at the 4-H Club for participating! We are looking forward to the 12 WorldTeach books being read and distributed to as many children as possible in the Marshall Islands.

Ebeye, one of the small islands of Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, is known as the "Slum of the Pacific" because of the poverty there. On January 11, 2013, I was able to take the ferry from Kwajalein to Ebeye to visit Class 12C of Kwajalein High School; these students are the authors of the forthcoming Takki and His Boat, a book on marine safety that is part of our Unbound Bookmaker Project.

Sharlen Smith, one of the WorldTeach volunteers on Kwajalein Atoll, invited me to come and read the first book, The Important Book about Majuro, to them and share some information about how to publish books. They normally hold class on Guegeegue (pronounced goo-jee-goo!), a neighboring island, but the bus, which takes students from Ebeye to the high school on Guegeegue via a bumpy causeway, was broken that week. We met in the evening at the local elementary school.

I am happy to announce that WAM: Canoes of the Marshall Islands is available on Amazon.com now (click the image to follow the link to Amazon). It was a beautiful project in and of itself, but it also prepared The Unbound Bookmaker for the upcoming barrage of WorldTeach books. Many thanks to the students at WAM, Alexis Bilyard, Kathy Hutton, Alson Kelen, Linton Baso, Daryle Newman, and Zoey Meyers for all their work in this very collaborative project. It was truly a pleasure.