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Free Books in Different Languages
Library Resources for Multilingual Families
School Resources for Multilingual Families
Websites for Multilingual Families
Free Books in Different Languages
African Storybook— This site allows you to read digital stories in English or various languages of Africa and surrounding countries.
BITS–English Language Learners: Listen and Read — This site shows many digital books, stories, and articles with human narrators reading them aloud in English. The books included are for upper elementary and secondary readers and are meant to support multilingual children through read-alouds.
Bloom Library — This website contains free books you can click on to read (with some available in audiobook form) for different levels of readers in various languages. Choose your language and a book by level, then click on the READ button to go to click through the pages of the book.
Book Dash— This site has books for young readers created in South Africa. They are written in English and many have translations you can choose for different African languages. You can read these books online or print them out to get a hard copy.
Global Digital Library— This site allows you to choose your target language then presents books arranged by reading levels for you to see. There are also math practice topics where children can check their progress on various sorts of beginning math problems.
Global Storybooks — This link to the site contains many books for young readers in a variety of languages. The text are displayed page-by-page and include a sound button for a native language narrator to read the text aloud.
International Children’s Digital Library — This site contains full books in digital form written in various languages.
Let’s Read–Digital Library of Children’s Books — This site is created by The Asia Foundation and contains over 10,000 digital books. Books are sorted by categories and many contain a translate button to show the text in English or in one or many Asian country translations.
Storyweaver — This site allows you to set up an account to enjoy thousands of children’s stories online, in several languages and formats: Read, Download, Translate and Create your own stories.
Unite for Literacy— This site holds picture books on various topics to click on and hear translations of the English text read in over 50 languages.
WIDA Resources for Families — WIDA includes English proficiency standards that most of the United States uses to measure and create instructional plans for multilingual students. This is the link from WIDA for many resources that can help families understand and make progress with their children on their English proficiency.
Library Resources for Multilingual Families
Check out free library programs in the Baltimore Metro area:
- Anne Arundel Public Library and the Biblioteca Público del Condado de Anne Arundel
De Condato Anne Arundel Facebook Group - Baltimore County Public Library and the Mango Language Learning Resource (scroll down on the page to get to the link for Mango)
- Baltimore City’s Enoch Pratt Free Library and the
- Frederick County Public Library — Resources in Spanish and English for BrainFuse and Mango Languages
- Harford County Public Library
- Howard County Public Library
- Montgomery County Public Library
- Prince George’s County Public Library and the Biblioteca Prince George Facebook Group
School Resources for Multilingual Families
Check out links to various area school system parent/guardian resources, some targeted for multilingual families:
- Anne Arundel County Public Schools
- Baltimore County Public Schools, the ESOL Welcome Center Resources, and the Spanish News Videoteca and Facebook pages
- Baltimore City Public Schools
- Harford County Public Schools
- Howard County Public Schools
- Montgomery County Public Schools
- Prince George’s County Public Schools
Websites for Multilingual Families
Arlington Public Schools created “La Sopa de la Abuela: Special Education Telenovela,”— a resource in Spanish and English for understanding special education processes and resources.
Colorin Colorado — a website with lots of ideas for families about books across cultures and home learning ideas. A button at the top switches the website from English to Spanish.
English Learner Family Tookit (in English, Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish)–a 9-page report for families is produced by the U.S. Department of Education and has sections on enrolling, attending school, getting services for your child, keeping your child safe, and helping with homework.
Family Engagement Resources for Education — This site from the U.S. Department of Education has links to many other resources for education at all levels for children and adolescents. Many of the resources are translated in up to 7 different languages.
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities — This website has links in various languages to federal health agencies and information.
Summer Learning Possibilities — The National Summer Learning Association and partners have links to lots of summer 2023 learning and fun resources for all students. There are links to find free summer meals, some camps and programs, reading, math, and other supports.
Understood.org — a website for Spanish-speaking (or English-speaking) families with ideas to help their children at home with attention and focus, behavior supports, and learning tips for the home.