Being exposed to multiple languages and cultures early on prepares children to navigate diverse environments more effectively and adapt to our increasingly globalized society. A good way to expose them to other languages and cultures is through reading multilingual children’s books with them. Multilingual children’s books are books with content in multiple languages. They are specifically designed to support language learning and/or cultural understanding in children. These books often feature words or text presented in multiple languages. That is, they need to be distinguished from bilingual children’s books that present the entire story in two languages. Instead, in multilingual children’s books, words, phrases or cultural concepts are included in the storyline or plot featured in the book.
Here are the multilingual children’s books that I have read with my own children as well as with children in different early childhood education centers:
| Title | Book Cover | Author/ Illustrator | Publication Year, Pages | Topic | Languages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Say Hello! |   |
Rachel Isadora | 2017, 32 pp. | Greetings | Arabic, French, Italian, Spanish, Swahili, Japanese, Chinese, Hebrew |
| My Language Your Language |   |
Lisa Bullard/ Paula Becker | 2015, 24 pp. | Linguistic landscapes – home languages, languages in the environment | Spanish, ASL, Dakota, French, Hmong, Somali, Arabic, Norwegian |
| Hello, Mandarin Duck! |   |
Bao Phi/ Dion Mbd | 2021, 32 pp. | Greetings | Vietnamese, Anishinaabe, Dakota, Tamil, Somali, Cambodian, Russian (others; 18 languages) |
| Dumplings for Lili |   |
Melissa Iwai | 2021, 48 pp. | Grandma, dumplings, and some exclamations in other languages | Chinese, Polish, Arabic, Spanish, Italian |
| Luli and the Language of Tea |   |
Andrea Wang/ Hyewon Yum | 2020, 40 pp. | Tea; Connecting with classmates through tea | Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Turkish, Persian, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Swahili |
| See Where We Come From! |   |
Scot Ritchie | 2021, 32 pp. | Mainly culture- specific foods | Japanese, Hindi, Portuguese, Norwegian, Arabic |
| We Say Hello
(also available: We Say Good Night) |
  |
Salina Yoon | 2021, 18 pp. | Lift-the-flap book with words for hello and goodbye | English, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, French, and Tagalog |
| How Do You Say I Love You? |  |
Hannah Eliot/ Shirley Ng-Benitez | 2017, 26 pp. | “I love you” | Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Russian, Egyptian, Portuguese, German, French, Hindi, Chinese |
| The Subway Sparrow |  |
Leyla Torres | 1997, 32 pp. | People helping a sparrow | Polish, Spanish |
| What a Wonderful Word |  |
Nicola Edwards/ Luisa Uribe | 2018, 64 pp. | Untrans- latable words (information- al text) | Multiple languages |
| A is for Bee: An Alphabet Book in Translation |  |
Ellen Heck | 2022, 40 pp. | 26 animal names that begin with different letters or sounds than their English counterparts | 68 languages |
| Mung Mung |  |
Linda Sue Park | 2004, 18 pp. | Animal sounds in different languages | Multiple language |
Have you read other multilingual children’s books? Please share them in the comment section!
