ABOUT US

GET TO KNOW TINY READERS PUBLISHING

OUR MISSION, OUR HISTORY

Tiny Readers Publishing is founded.
Character Creators Exchange is formed as the company’s new content collaboration platform.
Tiny Readers forms its animation division.
NoMeLoMe is formed as the company’s new content delivery platform.
The NoMeLoMe content delivery platform enters its final stage of testing.

Our mission at Tiny Readers Publishing is to help young children develop early literacy skills by offering the most entertaining illustrated fiction, and to bring those works to life with animations and sound. Over the last five years, we have built an extensive digital library that introduces children to new ideas, people, and places while describing familiar experiences to which they can relate. Each story exposes children to big ideas, allowing parents to engage their children in elaborative language conversations, building a base for early reading and comprehension.

The Tiny Readers Publishing community has now grown to include several hundred contributors, all working passionately towards a common mission of introducing children to a new way to read. The publications at Tiny Readers have all been designed to be digitally delivered on the most modern platforms, for the sole purpose of helping today's children develop early literacy skills using quality literature that is suitable for a changing world.

Sincerely,
The Tiny Readers Publishing Team

THE TEAMS BEHIND OUR MAGIC

EDITORIAL TEAM

Publishing Director Carolyn Mikelson

A former elementary school teacher, Carolyn Mikelson has always loved children’s literature. She enjoyed the whimsy of creating spontaneous stories for her kindergarten and first grade students, and later treated her own four children to a new oral bedtime story every night. Carolyn was thrilled to move into the world of publishing after her children became a bit older, and began working as a children’s literature editor at TRP in 2014. Carolyn makes her home in the far west Chicago suburbs, where she enjoys spending time outdoors, at the theatre, and at other fine arts and cultural events. During her free time, she teaches reading, writing, and speaking English to immigrant women in her area. Carolyn is member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

Editor Claudia Wardius

An avid reader and the mother of four teenagers, Claudia Wardius has been a fan of children's books for as long as she can remember. She has a journalism degree and worked as a newspaper reporter, magazine editor and book designer for almost 10 years before taking a break to be a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom. With the kids in school now, Wardius now works part-time as a freelance writer and editor of cookbooks, historical biographies and children's ebooks from her home in Wisconsin.

Editor Kristan Patenaude

As a mother of two young children, Kristan Patenaude is used to running around and hustling them from place-to-place. However, when she gets a moment of quiet to herself, her favorite thing is to read. She’s passed that love of reading to her son and daughter who, between themselves, check out close to 20 books each week from their local library! Her family loves to laugh and learn important lessons, all through the wonderful world of literature. When not lugging bags of books around, Kristan can also be found working and helping out in a small town of southern New Hampshire where she and her family reside.

Editor Catriona Takeuchi

Catriona Takeuchi has been working as an educator in Japan since 1991. Her work is primarily with young learners, with a focus on literacy and storytelling. She is particularly interested in children’s stories that highlight cultures of the world. Catriona uses these stories to help young learners understand themselves and navigate their places in this world through developing and sharing their own stories. Catriona has co-authored 3 phonics textbooks for very young learners (Modern English 2014), she has authored a range of graded readers for Halico ( 2018). She is also an author and series editor for Braided Readers original stories, highlighting global issues in graded reader format for ABAX Japan.

ART DIRECTOR'S TEAM

Art Director Carolyn Mikelson

Creative Director Sara Bormolini

Sara Bormolini was born in Como, Italy and spent her childhood between her hometown and the Alps of Livigno. Being on the move gave her a passion for travelling and a taste for new places and cultures. She’s studied in Milan, Birmingham, and Venice, and has been living in the UK after completing her master’s degree in Children’s Literature at Cambridge. Cat lover and picture book enthusiast, Sara now lives in Oxford, where she enjoys the local eateries, the theatre scene, and long hours playing board games. She is a member of the Society of Young Publishers, and she has been working as a children’s literature editor at TRP since 2014.

Senior Art Director Gillian Tolentino

Gillian Tolentino has always loved drawing. It was after she graduated in college with a degree in Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia Art that she began pursuing a career as a freelance children's book illustrator. Some of the book she has illustrated are Boxer and Brandon, Ants in Space and They’re Recycling Aliens. Gillian later began working as an art editor for CCREATORX. She is also an art teacher for primary students. When not working, she spends her free time baking and watercolor painting.

Art Director Nenad Taskov

Nenad Taskov is a freelance illustrator from Serbia. Teaching children and drawing are two of his great passions. He started teaching in a small school in 2002 after finishing college. Working with children for over 10 years brought Nenad many nice moments and a lot of valuable experiences. It was very special to him. A love for drawing has always been part of Nenad. Even while working as a teacher, he used drawing as part of his educational process. What was once a hobby in 2011 became part of his new profession when he started a new career as a freelance illustrator. Nenad can honestly say it was one of the best decisions he had ever made! Nenad has had the opportunity to work on various illustrative works, but working on children's books takes a special place in his heart.

Art Director Andrea Sánchez

Andrea Sánchez was born in Bogotá, Colombia. She studied Visual Arts in university, and since then has worked in print and digital editorial projects as a freelance designer and illustrator. Having lived all her life in a vibrant and crowded South American city, Andrea has learned to find beauty in small things such as good cup of coffee, a mountain hike or a nice children's book.

Art Director Andrea Alcantara

People have different opinions on when life begins. For Andrea Alcantara, life began when she failed her major subject during the first year of studying to be an accountant. She had always loved art, drawing and writing stories, but her parents had other plans for her. When she failed her major in accounting, Andrea had the opportunity to take back her life and do what she loves. With the help of one of her closest friends, she was able to follow her passion and get a Bachelor degree in multimedia art.

ANIMATION TEAM

Senior Production Director Borja Romero

His passion for drawing and animated films took Borja Romero from Valencia, Spain, where he was working as a graphic designer, to Vancouver (best cinnamon rolls ever!!), Canada, then back to Valencia in 2004 to study character animation. Back in Spain, Borja jumped into the advertising industry, working as animator, storyboarder and vfx composer for toys companies like Playskool, Megablocks, and Smoby, and for Spanish stop-motion short films from Conflictivos Productions. Borja has been always a bit of wanderer, and for a couple of years he taught the introductory course to Autodesk Maya for Professionals in the The Animation Workshop, before moving to Sofia, Bulgaria. There, he keeps drawing with the same passion every day.

Animation Artist Septian Setyo

Septian Setyo has loved pencil-drawing since he was in elementary school. He grew up in Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia, as a fan of manga. He taught himself how to draw. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in multimedia, Septian began a career as an animator with Alkemis Games, the game development studio which created the RPG mobile game Raiders Quest. Beside his current work as a freelance animator, Septian also works as lead animator of Solar Studio. He is currently creating an animated series for children.

Animation Director Veljko Golocorbin

Born in Serbia, Veljko Golocorbin is a computer graphics engineer who discovered his passion for filmmaking and animation during his university years. Recently he wrote, directed and co-created a 3D animated short film "Faded" that's currently on the festival circuit. He also began working on his debut live-action feature film. During the past seven years, Veljko has been a freelance 3D character animator, 3D generalist and motion graphics artist working for numerous companies and individuals.

DEVELOPMENT TEAM

Lead Solution Architect Jacques Leemans

Jacques Leemans worked as an electronic engineer for over six years, after which he moved into software engineering. In 2010, Jacques founded XGameDev, which is an interactive software studio based in Torquay, Australia. Jacques specializes in Fullstack game and application development and has a passion for educational games. He is a master in Unity 3D, which is his tool of preference for the projects he works on. He loves working on his own games in his spare time, and tinkers with any software ideas that pop into his head.

Senior Software Engineer Melanie Leemans

Melanie Leemans started her professional career in the Infrastructure Technology industry and spent 18 years in this field as a system specialist. After moving from her home country in 2015, Melanie made a career change. She discovered her passion for making, creating and playing with ideas for games, and she realized her calling was for educational content. Melanie finds it very rewarding to that the product she is creating is for an educational purpose.

Software Engineer Radu Baciu

A high school passion for creating websites influenced Radu Baciu to pursue a career in web development. Until now, his job gave him the opportunity to work on a variety of projects, from small presentational websites to large e-commerce websites. After obtaining over five years of experience in creating websites, Radu started his own company which offers front-end services in web development.

ADMINISTRATION TEAM

Marketing Manager Maria Gutierrez

Having graduated from Law School, Maria Gutierrez took a different turn in life and began freelancing in 2007. Born and raised in Bolivia, Maria enjoys working with people from all around the world and learning from people’s different cultures and backgrounds. Being the mother of a toddler, Maria enjoys quiet moments when she can read a good book and relax.

Administrator Felicia Wilkinson

Born in Romania and having studied in Denmark for a few years, Felicia Wilkinson began her professional life as a data administrator for a German IT/telecommunications company in Hungary. Due to her American husband's job she ended up teaching English in Japan for a few years. After becoming a mother, Felicia took up freelance administration which allowed her to work from home. Felicia's free time pursuits include drawing, making music and writing. She looks forward to using those talents together with her children to reach out to others, making the world around them a place of hope.

Human Resources Specialist Mary Ampuyas

Before beginning work as a freelancer, Mary Amputas was an IT support agent for a prominent university in the Philippines. She started to explore freelancing in 2009, and also completed her Master's degree (MSIT). In addition to her work as an online freelance data entry expert, Mary teaches computer-related courses at the college level. Mary is successful in both career paths, but she enjoys working in the freelance field more. She admits that being a virtual assistant in data entry is very challenging, but she enjoys the opportunities to learn new skill sets on a daily basis.

Administrator Geralyn Bansay

Born and raised in Manila, Philippines, Geralyn Bansay has a Bachelor of Science in psychology. She was focused on her job as technical coordinator for a telecommunication company in the Philippines, but began freelancing four years ago. Geralyn enjoys volunteering in her free time. She has a passion for helping deaf and mute people learn and use sign language.

Administrator Mitos Binar

Mitos Binar finished her studies with flying colors and uses those skills every day in her career with TRP. She considers it quite an achievement to be working with such intellectual co-workers who collaborate on different ideas and together create innovative ways to achieve success. Mitos has the ability to grow with a job, handle responsibility and build positive relationships with work colleagues at all levels. She continually challenges herself to deliver the simplest, most effective, most efficient, creative solutions. Through her creative approach to projects, she helps others reach their full potential. She’s been a support member for several years, and that sharpened her interpersonal, organizational, multitasking, and time management skills. Mitos has experience in different lines of businesses which required different skill sets. This taught her how to prioritize and organize her workload to meet changing demands. Some of her skills include SEARCH Engine Optimization, Web developing and Programming, Social Media Marketing, Email marketing through Icontact, Word Press, Email and chat Support, Technical Support, Accounting through QuickBooks, Shopify, Web Research, Data Entry, Microsoft Office Works, G Suite and G tools. Mitos has strong analytical skills and sets high standards for herself to ensure her work is consistently of high quality. She is highly adaptable to the ever-changed demands of a publishing company, and expects to hit the ground running every day.

OUR LEADERSHIP

Like many before us, we at Tiny Readers Publishing embrace the idea of fostering early literacy.

Today’s children are expected to know much more upon entering kindergarten than the children of previous generations. At one time, alphabet letters and sounds, concepts of print, and phonemic awareness skills were taught in kindergarten, but today’s children are expected to have mastered those skills by the time they begin traditional schooling.

Every publication at Tiny Readers Publishing is designed to help young children develop early literacy skills, beginning as early as one year of age. These books introduce children to new ideas, people, and places while describing familiar experiences to which they can relate. Each story exposes children to big ideas, allowing parents to engage their children in elaborative language conversations, building a base for early reading and comprehension. This was the mission that Tiny Readers Publishing was founded upon.

To this day, every team member strives to create content that engages modern children while fostering early literacy, thereby keeping our vision alive.

Co-Founder & Publisher Sean Calilly

Sean discovered his passion for children's illustrations and animations long ago, when taking an art class in early childhood. However, later in life, his career took shape around engineering and technology. Sean pursued software consulting after spending six years as an engineer in the aerospace industry. During his 22 years as a software consultant, Sean has implemented complex software projects for a number of Fortune 100 companies and other US based multinationals. When he began work on NoMeLoMe, he discovered that the technological challenges of delivering educational content in a format to revolutionize the way modern children read required building an advanced, feature-rich content delivery system capable of operating on numerous platforms. Meeting these challenges introduced an opportunity for Sean to merge his technological expertise with his childhood passion to accomplish the mission of having a positive impact on young readers. This conviction is at the core of his values, and the realization of these goals is what drives his relentless pursuit in making NoMeLoMe a reality. Sean and his elite team of software developers are in the final stages of testing numerous features of the NoMeLoMe digital library on various platforms.

Co-Founder & Publisher Elmeera Calilly

Elmeera Calilly’s deep interest in children’s literature was reignited in 2014 as she tried to encourage her young daughters to read more. Realizing this was a common challenge faced by many parents, Elmeera left her career in accounting to create Tiny Readers Publishing, aiming to change the way modern children read. Today, in collaboration with her team, she manages a large expanse of digital content by working with more than five hundred contributors who complete hundreds of production projects. Ambitious goals to bring early literacy to children as young as six months old has been the foundation for Elmeera. She firmly believes a reading system that delivers engaging content will foster a child’s love of literature at an early age and set the stage for them to succeed later in life.

STAY INFORMED

THE LATEST NEWS

November 2018

(Laguna Niguel, California) Tiny Readers Publishing has announced the upcoming release of the NoMeLoMe digital library. The NoMeLoMe platform provides young readers with a vast array of storybooks in a variety of genres, and can be adapted to suit each child's reading needs. In addition, each book can be accessed in ten different languages. Fun quiz games increase reading comprehension, while earning medals increases children's motivation to read more. It's educational and fun, all in one!

NoMeLoMe offers the most powerful features of any animated e-book library. It is unmatched in today’s technological landscape. Features like speed reading, voice recording, options to read in multiple languages, and options to listen to multiple narrators, all available on an expanding list of platforms, make this project unlike any of its predecessors.