Pequeño Editor is a boutique publisher for kids that aims to encourage reading throughout childhood with participatory experiences. Many of their books have been recognized and won international prizes.

In the last few years Argentina became a refuge for over 130.000 Venezuelan people who fled their country in search of better opportunities. The big issue was that many were parents forced to leave their kids behind with the hope of later bringing them over. Due to their present situation they are forced to miss out on so many everyday moments like reading to their kids at night.

And if this weren´t enough, communication means in Venezuela are very limited as is social media making it practically impossible for them to get in touch with their kids so that they can at least listen to their voice.

With the goal of raising awareness about the importance of reading to your kids during their childhood, Pequeño Editor creates Stand by my Voice, a device that is placed on the books and allows parents to bring their voice to their children for a moment of maximum closeness as is the moment at bedtime when they read to them. The project was created in response to the need of families in circumstances where distance and communication difficulties prevent, not only sharing the story before going to sleep, but also communication in general as is the case of the large community of Venezuelans who emigrated without their families and settled in Argentina.

The experience of Stand by my Voice with Venezuelan families is the starting point so that families that are in the same situation of being apart, find in Pequeño Editor a way to not give up on their children listening to stories told by them despite the distance. Because that moment of reading together brings them closer.

As a part of a second stage, Pequeño Editor makes available to the general public the possibility of adding the experience of the Stand by my Voice device to any of its books. The device can be ordered through the Pequeño Editor landing page, (cuentoconvoz.pequenoeditor.com), the parents record on any device they own, the audio of the book they selected and send it so that it’s stored in the corresponding SD card. After a few days, they will receive along with the book, the device with the built-in recording.

We created a device that can be attached to any Pequeño Editor book with a family members voice who narrates the story as the child flips the pages. The device contains an SD card that stores the recording in a very simple manner. This is attached to the cover and is activated when the child opens the book, thus listening to their parent narrating the story as if they were there.

The device can be ordered on Pequeño Editor´s web page, (cuentoconvoz.pequenoeditor.com), then the parent records the book on any available device they have and sends it to be stored on an SD card. After a few days they will receive the book with the device and the corresponding recording.

During the first month, the publisher had already 129 devices ordered that are close to being delivered. When you read this, it´s going to be hundreds more. On the other hand we gave visibility of Venezuela´s current situation and this case was shared by hundreds of people, journalists, personalities, both in Venezuela and in Argentina.