PVLF 2025

Interview with Eliza Keyton, Author of “Davina Finds her Vowels”

Eliza's Davina Finds Her Vowels blends playful storytelling with Malayalam learning, inspiring multilingual curiosity through Kerala's vibrant everyday scenes.
on Jun 17, 2025

Frontlist: Your book, Davina Finds Her Vowels, is both playful and educational. What inspired you to blend language learning with a seek-and-find format for young readers, especially during the summer vacation period?

Eliza: The story of Davina begins with the honest Davina the daughter of my best friend and her husband, with whom I spent a great deal of time while living in the United Arab Emirates. I wanted to create a book for a child growing up in a multilingual environment, one that would help her discover the vowels of Malayalam through the natural curiosity children possess.

While living in the UAE and during visits to Kerala, I observed a noticeable lack of resources for children who grow up hearing Malayalam at home but receive their formal education in English.

The seek-and-find format is playful, engaging, and interactive a deliberate choice. Having worked as an ESL teacher for many years, I've seen firsthand how much more receptive children are to learning when it's presented as an adventure rather than a traditional lesson.

Frontlist: Kerala plays a central role in your book’s setting. What made you choose it as the backdrop for introducing Malayalam vowels to toddlers?

Eliza: It felt natural to set the story in Kerala. I wanted to surround children with familiar sights, colors, and sounds that would create the proper context for Malayalam. I hoped Davina’s world would mirror the real-life scenes and everyday moments of Kerala whether it’s the gentle sway of a KSRTC bus or the bright lights of a bustling hypermarket. When children can picture themselves in a setting, they’re more likely to connect with the story and see the main character as a friend or even as themselves.

Frontlist: Summer vacations often spark curiosity and exploration in children. How do you see your book becoming part of a child’s summer reading adventure?

Eliza: It’s funny to talk about summer reading when Kerala itself is a land of eternal summer. I know that students get breaks at different times of the year, and these are excellent opportunities to nurture curiosity, discover new ideas, and apply what they’ve learned. Perhaps children might start paying closer attention to signboards and hoardings, trying to spot the letters they recognize from their books. They might feel inspired to explore their neighborhoods after seeing the adventures Davina experiences in her story.

Frontlist: You created the persona "Elikutty" to build Malayalam learning resources. How does Davina Finds Her Vowels fit into your broader mission of promoting regional language learning?

Eliza: Elikutty was born out of my frustration with the lack of meaningful and joyful resources available in Malayalam. Although India officially follows the three-language policy, in practice, regional languages often take a back seat to English especially in private education. Davina Finds Her Vowels is my attempt to demonstrate that there is a beautiful middle ground where multilingualism can truly thrive and that knowing more languages enriches both life and culture it doesn’t detract from them. This book is for families who wish to pass on Malayalam but may not have the resources or confidence to do so.

Frontlist: The book gently opens the door to Malayalam for non-native speakers. What advice would you give to parents wanting to introduce regional languages to their kids during the summer holidays?

Eliza: Start small and keep it enjoyable, not forced. Language learning isn’t about being perfectly accurate it’s about building connections and communication. Sing songs, read bilingual books, watch regional-language media, and label everyday items in the language you're learning.

For parents who didn’t grow up reading in their heritage language, it’s perfectly okay to learn alongside your child. When children see adults embracing new learning experiences and even making mistakes, it nurtures a genuine love for learning and fosters resilience in the face of challenges.

Offer gentle corrections, celebrate small milestones, and surround your home with the language through calls with grandparents, flashcard games, wall art with letters and words, and by keeping books and magazines easily accessible.

Frontlist: From Georgia to Kerala, your journey is as rich as a storybook. How has your cultural immersion influenced the way you write for children?

Eliza: I’ve been fortunate to be exposed to a variety of cultural influences growing up. My immigrant stepfamily in Chicago welcomed me into their home with delicious Serbian food and music, and I’d often hear them debating in their mother tongue. My Japanese-American aunt shared snacks and clothing from her heritage, and her brother created media about the Japanese internment camps in the U.S., which had deeply affected their parents.

At 21, I took my first teaching job in South Korea, and I’ve been moving around the world ever since.

As an educator, I’ve had the opportunity to work with children from many different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. I’ve trained as a language teacher, developed curricula, and trained other teachers on how to engage with young learners effectively.

All these experiences have shaped my approach to creating content that’s fun, engaging, and impactful. I often ask myself as I work: What will make a child more engaged here? How can I help them decode this sound or shape without it feeling like schoolwork?

Frontlist:Your book is visually engaging. How involved were you in the illustration process, and how did you ensure the visuals matched Kerala’s vibrant culture?

Eliza: I was very fortunate that AdiDev was highly selective in choosing the illustrator and included me in the conversations during the early sketching stages. I had created a document with reference photos from my time in Kerala. It was important to me that the book felt authentic not just a generic "tropical" aesthetic, but a world that was distinctly Kerala. Kohan Kolam exceeded my expectations, and once the pages started arriving for review, I knew the book was truly coming to life.

One detail that mattered was that Davina should wear glasses just like the honest Davina does. I sincerely appreciate that we were able to create a character who genuinely looked like a child from Kerala, someone curious and eager to share the wonders of her hometown.

Frontlist: Do you have plans to expand Davina’s story, perhaps more letters, more states, or even more languages, to make language learning a year-round adventure for children?

Eliza: Absolutely! Davina Finds Her Vowels is just the beginning. I’ve drafted a whole series of books with Davina, covering consonants, conjunct characters, and chills, each with a specific Kerala-based theme to ground the story in relatable contexts. From the neighborhood chai kada to Athirappilly Falls, there are many stories yet to be told with Davina.

I’d also love to collaborate with a publisher on a beginner Malayalam coursebook. I have already completed a table of contents and a few chapters, but I haven’t had luck yet in finding a publisher who is ready to take on such a project. I believe that adults also need excellent materials, and there is considerable room for improvement in this aspect.

Our children deserve books that honor all of their languages, not just the ones with economic or colonial prestige. My dream is to make multilingual literacy as fun, natural, and beloved as any English bedtime story.