I have an amazing resource to share today. The International Children’s Digital Library Foundation is a free online library with thousands of children’s books from around the world.
This digital library has an amazing selection of books. To give you an idea, there are currently 662 books in many different languages in the preschool age range alone, and 121 that were originally written in English. You will find books written in Portuguese, Yiddish, Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Dutch, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Italian, French, Norwegian, and many, many more. Most of the books are translated into English. Some are translated into many other languages as well.
Thankfully, they have an easy to navigate search page. It’s set up so that even children can find books easily. You can pick from a target age group: three to five, six to nine, and ten to thirteen. You can ask for make believe books or true books. You can pick if you want short, medium, or long books, and picture or chapter books. Do you want to read about kid characters, animal characters, or imaginary creatures? You can concentrate your search on award winning books, folk and fairy tales, or recently added titles. Registering with the site is optional. If you register you can save your preferences for the many categories, and keep your favorite books on a virtual bookshelf.
The goal of the ICDLF is to build a collection of books that represents outstanding historical and contemporary books from throughout the world. Ultimately, they aspire to have every culture and language represented so that every child can know and appreciate the riches of children’s literature from the world community.
I can of course see great potential with this site for educators teaching reading, languages, and about history and other cultures. I think language students could benefit from reading children’s books in the language they are studying. For people who aren’t fortunate enough to live near a good library, here is one available through their internet connection. And for people who love children’s literature, this site is an amazing find. Take a few minutes to explore!
Also See:
Media Reviews for Children’s Books
Media Reviews for Caldecott Winners