Bilingual Picture Books

Bilingual picture books offer children the opportunity to develop a second language and expand their cultural awareness. While reading a bilingual picture book won’t teach kids a new language, it’s a great way to introduce and reinforce new sounds and words.

Because their bilingual books provide side-by-side text in English as well as Spanish, I recommend starting with one language and sticking with it throughout the entire book. Then, read the book again but in the other language. If your child is fluent in both languages, you can try reading both languages side by side and comparing the translations. Either way, after you read, spend some time talking about the story and the new words you learned. Oral language development is foundational to reading success in any language.

When it comes to choosing a bilingual book, it’s no different than picking any book for your child. Select high interest, relatable stories. Even better, have your child choose the books.

Here are a few websites in which you can obtain bilingual Spanish/English books for free.

Uniteforliteracy.com
https://www.thespanishexperiment.com/stories
Epic.com