Multicultural Books for Preschoolers Celebrate Diversity in the Classroom

The availability of multicultural and diverse books has not matched the growing diversity in schools. To address this need, Language Lizard, a leading supplier of bilingual books in over 50 languages, has developed new sets of multicultural books that celebrate cultural and ethnic diversity.

Basking Ridge, United States - November 2, 2017 /PressCable/ —

The number of US residents who speak a language other than English at home has risen over the last three decades. Today over 1 in 5 children speak a language other than English at home. While Spanish is the main language, there is increasing linguistic and cultural diversity in schools, with significant growth in the number of families from Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

There has been a growing awareness that children’s books do not reflect the diversity that exists in today’s classrooms. In response to this issue, several non-profit initiatives, such as “Multicultural Children’s Book Day” and “We Need Diverse Books,” actively promote the development and distribution of books with diverse characters in which children see themselves represented in the pages.

Language Lizard LLC, a leading supplier of bilingual books in over 50 languages, has responded to this need with several new sets of multicultural books that expose children to cultural and ethnic diversity and celebrate differences.

The company recently launched a set of Must-Read Multicultural Books for Preschoolers and Kindergartners. This set includes 25 favorite multicultural stories that portray children from various backgrounds, including African American, Hispanic, Middle-Eastern, Asian and Native American. It includes stories related to the immigrant experience, books that help children embrace their unique heritage, and folktales from around the world.

In addition to the new 25 book set of diverse books, the company also introduced several smaller sets of multicultural books. This includes a “Cultural Holidays” set with picture books about Diwali, Chinese New Year and Eid. In addition, there is a set of children’s books about diversity, looking at games, food and transportation around the world.

The entertaining and well-reviewed stories help students appreciate diversity and build community with those around them. Children in diverse classrooms will build self esteem as they read and hear books in which their culture or ethnicity is represented.

Language Lizard undertakes a number of initiatives throughout the year to support diversity and literacy among language learners. Currently the company is running a giveaway in which over $1000 of bilingual books are being given away through September 2018. Readers can enter the bilingual book giveaway at www.LanguageLizard.com/win-bilingual-books.

Language Lizard’s mission is to promote the maintenance of heritage languages and support educators, librarians and parents who work with dual language learners. The company offers books in over 50 languages including Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Gujarati, Haitian-Creole, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Nepali, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese. Language Lizard also provides multilingual audio products, posters in different languages, and free multicultural lesson plans for teachers.

Contact Info:
Name: Anneke Forzani
Email: [email protected]
Organization: Language Lizard, LLC
Address: PO Box 421, Basking Ridge, NJ 07920, United States
Phone: +1-888-554-9273

For more information, please visit http://www.LanguageLizard.com

Source: PressCable

Release ID: 258911