Hi, I'm DLee...Welcome to DLee's World! by Diana Lee Santamaria

 

 

 

 

Meet the Author

Diana Lee Santamaria

 

Diana Lee Santamaria has been an early childhood educator for eight years. She has a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education along with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Studies. Diana Lee’s preschool learning books entitled, DLee’s Color Hunt, DLee’s Outdoor Countdown, DLee's First Day of School, DLee's Nighttime Scare, DLee's Bad Day (Un mal día de DLee), DLee's Snow Day, and DLee's Shapely Imagination are the first seven bilingual learning books in her series. As an educator, Diana Lee wanted to create books that were authentic to her students, while enhancing their overall developmental abilities. Thus, she has ensured that the illustrations are bold, fun, and bright with quirky, unique, and diverse characters. As a woman of Hispanic descent, Diana Lee understands that children need to see characters that are representative of themselves. As a child Diana Lee recalls, there was a lack of diversity seen in children's literature, therefore she made it her duty to make diversity a key element in the DLee’s World books. Therefore, you will see a variety of divergent characters from DLee, to her Mommy and Daddy, Rye, Ms. Mayo, and so on. 

The main character DLee is based on the author’s own physical appearance as a child and “DLee’s World” is based on a compilation of her own childhood and experiences as an adult and teacher. Diana Lee’s books encompass her creativity and quirkiness, while still maintaining relevance to her preschool readers, three to five years of age. Her scholastic series aims to answer the educational questions and challenges that her readers face throughout the beginning stages of their lives.

 

"As a child who struggled with reading, I understand the importance of literacy and making it fun for children, so I work on bringing all the essential elements into DLee's World to engage children and increase learning."