Dual Language Children's Books

In Summer 2002, The Washington Reading Corps compiled a list of children’s books that are available in both English and the following languages that are widely spoken in the Seattle area. The languages currently researched include:
Amharic, Chinese, Hmong, Khmer, Lao, Samoan, Somalian, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese.

List of Books by Language.

In many cases, the book titles provided were unable to be reviewed, and thus this is not a list of recommended books, but merely a list of what is available. Whenever we could we added books that were culturally relevant as well as ones we knew to be of high quality. Most of the books incorporated in this list are available locally or online. We have included publisher information, and most often, a place where the book may be purchased. Approximate prices have been listed in some cases, but please note that these may change.

For quick reference, some of the major publishers of children’s bilingual books are:
Asia For Kids www.asiaforkids.com or 1-800-888-9681
Children’s Book Press www.cbookpress.org
Pan Asian Publications www.panap.com or 1-800-909-8088
Shen’s Books www.shens.com or 1-800-456-6660

For Asian language books in Seattle, visit Kinokuniya Bookstore at Uwajimaya at
525 S. Weller, Seattle, 206-587-2477.

The need for a list of this sort was discovered as Washington Reading Corps members searched for books for family literacy backpacks for their schools. A list was sought that would include a variety of culturally relevant books in the most needed local languages in both English and the other language. As far as could be discovered, no such list of children's dual language books in these languages existed.

We researched the following additional local languages but were unable to locate bilingual books in: Ilokano, Mien, Oromo, Tigrinia, and Toishanese.

We understand that this is by no means a complete list. We apologize that at this time we do not have the capacity to maintain this list. We hope in the future to be able to accept changes and additions. Thank you for your patience and understanding.