Former Medbourne resident's love of Portugal inspired her to create bilingual children's books

Sheila enjoys visiting libraries to read her books to children.

A multilingual author from Medbourne is inspiring children to explore different languages.

Former language teacher Sheila Ward retired to the Algarve, in Portugal, in 2010 where she teaches at a more leisurely pace - through the medium bilingual children’s books.

Sheila studied Spanish and Portuguese in the 60s before teaching English in the country’s capital of Lisbon. A lack of resources inspired her to find creative ways to promote language learning among children.

Sheila was inspired to write bilingual children's stories.

She said: “When I started teaching English as a foreign language in the sixties, there were very few appropriate materials so I created a lot of my own. I was particularly interested in the use of stories and songs in language teaching.”

Her first work, 'Dippitydoo', a collection of songs for children with activity book and teacher's guide was published in 1980. This was followed by a teacher’s resource book, co-authored with a colleague, in 1997.

Eventually, her first bilingual children's storybook 'Freda and Fernando on the River Tagus’, or ‘Freda e Fernando no rio Tejo' was published in Portugal in 2014. The book follows the adventures of two old ferryboats that take passengers back and forth across the River Tagus – famous for its fundamental role in Lisbon’s prosperity. More books followed including ‘Darcy the Dinosaur’ - about a clumsy and short-sighted but well-meaning dinosaur who likes to sing as she walks along.

Sheila added: “I decided to make them bilingual as I believe this is the best way to learn another language and as yet there are still not a lot of bilingual books in English and Portuguese. Of course, they can be enjoyed in either language even if people are not interested in learning the other language.”

Sheila occasionally revisits her Harborough home soil and hopes to attend reunite with her grammar school classmates at an upcoming school reunion.

In the meantime, she enjoys going to schools and libraries to read her stories to children. She added: “It helps to keep me young.”

For more information visit www.sheilamargaretward.co.uk. Sheila’s stories and songs are also available to listen to on You Tube.