Bill Belew has raised 2 bi-cultural kids, now 34 and 30. And he and his wife are now parenting a 3rd, Mia, who is 8.

I don’t like Gaston.

I love Princess Belle.

Okay, so what? I am like a lot of other little girls.

But I am also different.

But, I wonder if I don’t like/love them for the same reasons.

Besides trying to kill the beast, and thinking of Belle as an object here’s another reason why I don’t like Gaston.

Gaston Can’t Read

“How can you read this?! There are no pictures!”

I love to read. I love when my mommy and daddy or my brother, George-y, reads to me. They read to me in Chinese, in English and in Japanese.

What an amazing world can be explored without even leaving home! I can only imagine how excited Belle must have been been when Beast let her have all the books in his library.

I love the library. My mommy and I go there often to look for books to read. And there are so many.

I have a book – By Cows Who Chew Lilies. It’s my first try. And I am sure I will get better.

My First Book – Mia

But like daddy says, “You have to the first one before you can do the second one.” And the first one is done for me.

The first of many.

I never want to be like Gaston. I want to be more and more like Princess Belle.

But most of all … I want to be Mia.

Talk to Bill and others about their experiences raising bi-cultural Japanese-American kids.