Bonjour! Al Salaam A'alaykum! Ciao! Jambo!

Today’s children’s book reviews highlight kids’ books which feature multiple languages. Mostly for English language-speaking children, these books are great ways to introduce some basic phrases and words.

Does your family speak another language? Most Free Library of Philadelphia locations have adult and children’s materials in non-English languages and many bilingual materials. Go to the Free Library catalog and browse by language and library location to find just what you’re looking for.

Say Hello! By Rachel Isadora is a great book to share with preschoolers to teach them how to say hello in different ways. While Carmelita and her mama are on their way to visit Abuela Rosa, they run into their neighbors who speak many different languages. Manny the dog greets them in his own way (woof!) and the kids say “Hey!” “Yo!” and “Wuzzup?”

Can You Count Ten Toes? by Lezlie Evans and illustrated by Denis Roche. When we begin to learn a new language, we typically learn to count. This book shows us the words for one through ten in ten different languages, including Hebrew, Zulu, Tagalog, and Russian. A travelling cat keeps readers company on their journey around the world.

How Hippo Says Hello and How Gator Says Good-Bye by Abigail Samoun and illustrated by Sarah Watts are new board books that show the youngest readers ways to say hello and goodbye in eight languages. A traveling animal greets his friends in their countries (Argentina, Egypt, India) and at the back of the books, there is a cute world map, showing where hippo and gator have travelled.