Hearty

Hearty the book is a multilingual children's story that follows the journey of Kurasonchi, an energetic and passionate heart that no longer wishes to be a heart. In pursuit of finding a higher purpose, he takes a trip around the body to see what it would be like to be an eye, mouth, ear, nose, hands, and feet. During his adventure Kurasonchi learns a lot, but the most profound lesson comes when he realizes the importance of a small heart in a big world. This book was created to serve as a tool to build self-esteem. This story - in a playful way - teaches children about the various body parts and their functions. In addition, and more importantly, Hearty's adventure promotes awareness, especially self-awareness. The story was originally written in Papiamentu/o and has been translated into English, Spanish and Dutch. By placing these four languages into one book, children are able to read the story in their mother language first, thereby identifying more closely with the true meaning and message of the tale. Secondly, by subsequently reading the same story in other languages, children are able to grasp these languages more easily. With the use of colors that highlight significant words throughout the story, we designed a way to stimulate the readers to learn the other languages as well.