Children’s Books in Your Language
February 21st is International Mother Language Day. Established by the United Nations (UN) in February 2000, International Mother Language Day aims to promote the importance of multilingualism throughout the world.
According to the UN, “every two weeks a language disappears taking with it an entire cultural and intellectual heritage.” The importance of language, and the dissemination of one’s mother tongue cannot be overlooked. Language is vital not only to the development of our own identities, but for community building, communication, cultural and economic development, and it forms the basis of social cohesion. As such, reading a book together is a great way for paren'ts or caregivers to pass along their linguistic and cultural heritage to children.
Paren'ts looking for children’s books written in their mother language should look no further than the library. Toronto Public Library has a variety of books, movies, magazines (and more) in over 40 different languages. You can browse by language, or check out a list of branches that have collections in each language.
Children’s Books in Different Languages
Here is just a sample of some of the titles we have to offer:
我們去找大熊 Wo men qu zhao da xiong = We’re going on a bear hunt
Bienvenue! : un livre sur l’inclusion = All are welcome
Books in Portuguese | português
Os três bodes Gruff = The three billy goats Gruff
Did you know that select library branches even offer bilingual story times? You can listen to songs, stories, and rhymes in a variety of languages including, Polish, French, and Cantonese. Can’t make it to the library? Children and their families can call Dial-a-Story for FREE any time of the day and listen to stories in 16 languages.
All this and so much more is available at your local library. Come check us out today!
5 thoughts on “Children’s Books in Your Language”
This is so great!!!
I love the book “Say Hello” by Rachel Isadora where the little girl says greets all the people in her neighbourhood in their native languages.
https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM2616525&R=2616525
That is a great book. I love it too!
Aren’t there any Amharic books to add to the list?
Hi Brad, yes there are. You can find a list here: https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/search.jsp?N=37953+20104+37846&Ns=p_date_acquired_sort&Nso=1
Wow. This is amazing! 🙂
Thank you for sharing.