Meet Sandra Gonzalez and Reynaldo Mora of Skillful & Soulful Press

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sandra Gonzalez and Reynaldo Mora.

Sandra and Reynaldo, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
“Our story” is best told by first recognizing Paulo Coelho’s quote from The Alchemist, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” We believe that this quote...

Whittier mom and daughter to publish vocabulary books teaching kids 'fancy' words

As a 4-year-old, Julia Rae Rodriguez was interested in words and learning their meanings.

One particular word that caught her attention was “radiant,” said her mother, Sandra Gonzalez.

“When I told her it meant bright, shiny, she said, ‘Oh, you mean like the sun,'” Gonzalez  said. “I told her that she is radiant too.”

Mami, dime por qué soy radiante: La pregunta que le dio vida un libro bilingüe de madre e hija

Juliana Rae Rodríguez y su progenitora, Sandra González, crearon juntas este proyecto con el fin de fomentar la lectura y enriquecer el vocabulario. La pareja de González participó en la obra como ilustrador. Ahora, esta familia también cuenta con una compañía editorial.

School of the Free Mind Student Spotlight: Sandra Gonzalez, Skillful & Soulful Press

When Matthew and I changed the format of our School to be independent study as well as more financially accessible, our hope was that folks would take full advantage of all the numerous materials to support them and their publishing endeavors. Publishing a children’s book, whether through traditional means or self-publishing, can be huge. Not just the physical creation but also powerful for the body, heart and mind too. It’s why I teach the way I do...​

Radiant moms and daughters learn fancy words together with this bilingual picture book

Mommy, Tell Me Why I Am Radiant is our proactive response to addressing a “word poverty” that exists particularly in communities of color. Basically, this gap in words is what early literacy experts refer to when describing the disparity between the number of words that children from families of disadvantaged economic backgrounds hear compared to children from families of more affluent economic backgrounds. Reading experts say that young children...