DERT DERT creates thoughtfully designed books for young readers and families that explore imagination, resilience, and meaning through shared reading. Enjoy!

DERT's page seeks to connect with people who share a love for reading and are interested in various forms of culture. DERT recognizes the need for a more holistic approach to our understanding of the arts and humanities — in order to promote a new kind of "21st century literacy". By having a greater understanding of how our cultural heritage and contemporary forms of human expression conn

ect, each of us has the potential to form a broader understanding of our world. With this foundation, DERT hopes to help enable a shift in the focus of simply collecting knowledge, to fostering greater curiosity in each of us. DERT believes that cultivating a point of view, based on a broad understanding of our world, will give individuals a stronger foundation for learning, strengthening each of our own personal interests, and enabling us to be better collaborators. Our page seeks to provide our followers with daily inspiration on various topics. From literature to art, celebrating various forms of human expression and achievement. We provide features, a Word of The Day, book finds posts, and publish quotes from a variety of historic and contemporary individuals who have contributed to expanding the definition of literacy. We also hope to build a community and connect with our followers encouraging participation in the site. We feature a book selfie each day of our fans and are planning more dynamic projects that will encourage various forms of participation. Posting Policy: Posting Policy:Thank you for liking the official DERT page. We're glad you're here. We are committed to creating a community that encourages self-expression and mirrors the values of DERT including respect for the rights, dignity, and property of others. We ask all fans to do their part to help us achieve the goal. In doing that, we ask you not to post content that:

-is threatening, abusive, obscene, indecent, or objectionable.
-is deceptive, false, or misleading
-violates the intellectual property rights of other people
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-is inappropriate, offensive, or hateful

We reserve the right to remove any content or block users that violate our community guidelines, or that we determine are otherwise offensive to our community. All content must also comply with Facebook's policies as well. We would be sorry to see you go, but if you change your mind and no longer want to like our page, please feel free to "unlike" our page.

The Holi Day is a children’s book inspired by the Hindu festival of colors—a celebration of renewal, joy, and togetherne...
01/13/2026

The Holi Day is a children’s book inspired by the Hindu festival of colors—a celebration of renewal, joy, and togetherness. The story follows Asha, a young Hindu girl determined to fill her town with color until there’s none left.

As the day unfolds, Asha calls out to her friend Zaid, who practices a different faith and is preparing for his daily prayers. Together, they navigate the celebration with care and respect, showing how friendship can honor different beliefs while still making room for shared joy. Rather than asking either child to set aside what they believe, the story highlights patience, consideration, and the simple ways people can look out for one another during meaningful moments.

Designed and illustrated by Malavika Srinivasan, the book uses a gentle, minimalist visual style that allows color, movement, and emotion to lead the story—reflecting the spirit of Holi itself.

Created as part of DERT’s collaborative, design-led publishing project, The Holi Day explores cultural tradition, friendship across difference, and thoughtful storytelling for young readers and families.

01/12/2026

Time With Taki
Written and designed by Jojo Jiang.

Inspired by Zhuangzi’s Butterfly Dream, this gentle picture book explores a timeless question:
What is real—and how do we know?

Through poetic text and quiet imagery, time is re-imagined as something felt—shadows, memories, emotions—both visible and unseen. A philosophical idea translated into wonder for young readers.

Created through DERT’s collaboration with Parsons School of Design as part of the Collab: Design for Literacy course.

A great final critique event . Thanks to each of the students from  as they showcased their final book projects for our ...
05/09/2025

A great final critique event . Thanks to each of the students from as they showcased their final book projects for our Collab class, Design For Literacy. And an extra grateful cheer to each of our judges for providing invaluable feedback!

A new semester begins at  - looking forward to all the great books that will be created by each of the students in our C...
01/24/2025

A new semester begins at - looking forward to all the great books that will be created by each of the students in our Collab: Design For Literacy class!

Our 1st day of class for the Spring term begins   great group of design students starting on a new batch of baby board b...
01/27/2023

Our 1st day of class for the Spring term begins great group of design students starting on a new batch of baby board books! Looking forward to some great results!!

Check this out… Robert Louis Stevenson’s Gothic novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde Hyde is one of his mo...
01/22/2023

Check this out… Robert Louis Stevenson’s Gothic novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde Hyde is one of his most well known works. The story centers on the psychological duality of good and evil in human nature, inviting us to explore the ethics in the concept of a split personality.

DERT’s addition features the cover design artwork of Sonali Jain, a communication design student from New Delhi, India. Get yours at dertbook.com.

Our Design For Literacy class, at Parsons School of Design begins this week. New crop of Parsons students jlin us in cre...
01/21/2023

Our Design For Literacy class, at Parsons School of Design begins this week. New crop of Parsons students jlin us in creating a new batch of children’s books!

A look at the collaborative course, Design For Literacy, developed by Marcos Chavez for Parsons School of Design.

05/14/2022

students from our Collab: Design For Literacy class just completed their semester with incredible results. Fresh new children’s books created by an amazing group of communication design students, each bringing their full talents and filled hearts to their design process. DERT is proud of it’s collaboration with a growing team of global design talent, bringing to life books created to engage children and families in reading together.

An amazing night of final critique reviews as our Design For Literacy class yielded incredible new book designs. Thanks ...
05/13/2022

An amazing night of final critique reviews as our Design For Literacy class yielded incredible new book designs. Thanks to our panel of guest reviewers who Zoomed in from all corners of the world and provided expert and heartfelt feed back to each students presentations. A big thank you to each student who put there full hearts and minds into a special set of book products!

Parsons students are rocking the semester with new baby board books designed and children’s storybooks in progress!
04/08/2022

Parsons students are rocking the semester with new baby board books designed and children’s storybooks in progress!

DERT’s The Little Half-Chicken is based on the Spanish folktale of a stubborn half-chick that is on a quest to meet the ...
01/30/2021

DERT’s The Little Half-Chicken is based on the Spanish folktale of a stubborn half-chick that is on a quest to meet the King. This book was designed by Misha Dhanoolal, a communication design student from Frenchtown, New Jersey. Through her minimal illustrations and friendly conversational tone, Misha’s design and text brings to life the Spanish folktale, The Little Half-Chicken, a story about a stubborn half-chick that seeks to meet the King in his palace, with no time to help friends in need.

01/24/2021

The Yummies is a children’s board book designed to introduce infants and toddlers to the zany world of vegetables. Designed and illustrated in 2019 by Kirsh Chandiramani as part of DERT’s collaboration class with . The book seeks to bring an unique 21st Century perspective to a child’s first reading experience, providing the inspiration for the reading parent or caregiver to expresses their own words, sounds and motion in order to create the stimulation needed to activate learning and create loving bonds that help ensure success in school and life. book

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Olympia, WA
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