Welcome.

I’m Amy Costales, an award-winning author of bilingual children’s books, a teacher, and an advocate for social justice in education.

My mother tells me that I "wrote" stories in notebooks before I could even spell my name. I don't remember that. I do remember the story I wrote in second grade and being a writer from that point on, always busy with stories and poems. I was 21 when I became interested in writing picture books. I had a daughter I was reading to and I was rediscovering a genre I hadn't explored since my own childhood. I was also struggling to find books with Latino kids and diverse family structures. While raising my daughter led me to writing the kind of books I was looking for, the kids that came into my life since have motivated me to continue. My daughter, son, nieces, nephews and a friend's child are in my published books. I love the challenge of a picture book, taking a complex idea and breaking it down into 15-16 pages, trimming and shedding the excess, focusing on each word, much like writing a poem.

I have been teaching for over twenty years, beginning in K-12. I currently teach Spanish for Heritage Speakers at the University of Oregon.

If you want to know more, click on the Meet the Author tab.

My books