Written By: Samantha Hart

Many components come together to make every parade season special and new while honoring traditions. Fostering community is the most important (and in my opinion, the best) part of the Steuben Parade. In preparation for the 2018 parade season I have been chatting with our sponsors for some participant insights. One thing has become abundantly clear through these interviews: our sponsors are as much a part of the parade community as our visitors from Europe, those with Germanic heritage in the US, all the way to our canine participants! Sponsors feel connected either through their specific products or their own Germanic heritage.  Keep coming back to read more on our “Sponsor Series”.

We are very excited to highlight more new sponsors! KinderBooks NYC is a brand new sponsor this year and can be found in our Journal at the Gala. I spoke with Beatrice Beckmann (Founder) to learn more about KinderBooks NYC.

They provide a very exclusive and important service: Their aim is to provide easy access to great German children’s books at affordable prices – in order to make it as easy as possible to pass language and culture on to children. This can come in the form of classics, unusual finds or new releases etc. Books are handpicked for each individual costumer based on the age, interests, the language level of the children and the preferences of the parents. The books are then shipped to them. Kinderbooks ships to all states with in the USA. Since the language level of bilingual children can vary a lot, parents face the challenge of finding the right fit. KinderBooks takes the guess work out and has books in a range of language from basic to elevated.

Beatrice left Germany about 5 years ago and has been living in New York.  She just recently learned about the Parade and this will be her first year as a Steuben Parade Sponsor. She is very excited to be participating and have her kids with her. Publishing is in her blood, as both of her parents worked in the industry and Mrs. Beckmann herself worked at a literary agency as well as Random House in Munich. “It is not an overstatement to say that books and language are my passions in life. I came to the US for love, am now married to a New Yorker and have two boys. When looking into how to raise bilingual children, I learned that reading to your children, if possible, is a key factor.” Finding it hard to get hold of truly great German children’s books without breaking the bank I founded KinderBooks NYC. Its office is in Harlem, New York and was soft launched in Fall 2016

I found a particularly interesting paragraph on the website’s About Us page:

If you are raising a bilingual child, reading to your child in German daily can make a crucial difference. Experts say the magical number is somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes a day. Why? Living abroad the vocabulary your child is exposed to is limited to home situations and probably is restricted to only a few people. Books help to bridge that gap and expose your child to lots of new different words and sayings. It may well turn a passive listener of German to an active German speaker. Books also make your child more acquainted to the German speaking culture, after all Europe is an ocean away. Obviously, motivation is key.  The more engaging the book, the more appealing the illustrations, the bigger the variety of books, the more your children will make the effort to read (or ask you to read) in German.

For a closer look at all that they offer, please see www.kinderbooks.nyc

We can’t wait to see everyone next month at the Steuben Parade!