Milena Gavala

Hi! I’m Milena, book-lover, science illustrator, wife to a wildly supportive man, and mom of two little bookworms in training. I'm bilingual and my kiddos are in a dual-immersion school here in Chula Vista, California. I was surprised how few resources there were for Spanish books nearby, so I'm here to change that!

Spanish was my first language, taught to me by my Croatian mom (wait - what??), who grew up in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Because I grew up mostly here in the US, I ended up losing my Spanish for the first few years of elementary school, and never really learned to read or write that well in Spanish. My parents would try to take us to Bolivia every few years during summer breaks, though, and I ended up relearning it through those trips. I eventually moved to Cocha for my last two years of high school, which is when I became truly bilingual.

​​

Although never really read much in Spanish, boy did I read in English. I was the kid who spent every moment I could in the library and took home an armful of books stacked to my chin each time. My family likes to kid me about that one time I read the dictionary (no, really). I will forever stay up way too late reading just one more chapter. These days, my kids know the very best way to make me drop whatever I'm doing is to ask me if I'll read to them.