Teachers who work with English as a Second Language learners will find ESL/ESOL/ELL/EFL reading/writing skill-building children's books, stories, activities, ideas, strategies to help PreK-3, 4-8, and 9-12 students learn to read.
Bilingual Education
About.com: Recommended Children's Audio Books
A site that has links to six audio books as well as many links to popular children's books arranged by category, monthly themes and favorites.
About.com: The Best Sites for Free Audio Books
About.com offers a list of websites that have free audio books for download, as well as brief descriptions of each website and what is available.
AdLit: Books & Authors is a part of AdLit.org, WETA's Adolescent Literacy Web site. Books & Authors offers themed booklists for young adults, exclusive author video interviews, and guided discussions for specific books.
The American Library Association lists award-winning books, print and media for children and young adults, and links to pages with more information about these resources.
The Américas Award is given in recognition of U.S. works of fiction, poetry, folklore, or selected non-fiction (from picture books to works for young adults) published in the previous year in English or Spanish that authentically and engagingly portray Latin America, the Caribbean, or Latinos in the United States. The award is sponsored by the national Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP).
Arte Público Press: Piñata Books
Piñata Books is an imprint of Arte Público Press dedicated to the publication of children's literature that authentically and realistically portrays themes, characters, and customs unique to U.S. Hispanic culture. Books published under this imprint include bilingual picture books for children and entertaining novels and short-story collections for young adults by authors such as Pat Mora, Diane Gonzales Bertrand, Victor Villaseñor, Ofelia Dumas Lachtman, and many others.
Audible Kids provides digital audio content for children. Shop, purchase, and download digital audio editions of books, newspapers, and magazines; original programming; and TV and radio subscriptions. Spanish titles are also available.
Alma Flor Ada's colorful author Website links to books in both English and Spanish that she has written for children and educators. She suggests ways for educators to help children to connect to her literature, for example by creating an Author's Study or writing responses to her books.
Author Website: Jacqueline Jules
Jacqueline Jules, a children's author and school librarian, highlights her stories on her Web site with the help of book trailers, teacher guides, videos, and some interactive games.
Author Website: Juan Felipe Herrera
Juan Felipe Herrera is an author, artist, poet, and playwright who has written and illustrated a number of bilingual children's and young adult books, including Calling the Doves/El Canto de las Palomas and Downtown Boy.
Lulu Delacre is an acclaimed Puerto Rican author and illustrator who has published numerous children's books, including Rafi and Rosi, Salsa Stories, and The Storyteller's Candle: La velita de los cuentos.
Author Website: Maya Christina Gonzalez
Maya Christina Gonzalez is an artist who has illustrated and written a number of colorful bilingual children's books, including My Colors, My World/Mis Colores, Mi Mundo and a number of poetry collections by Francisco X. Alarcón.
Monica Brown is an award-winning multicultural children's book author and also publishes scholarly work with a Latino focus.
Author Website: Pam Muñoz Ryan
A site for readers curious about Pam Muñoz Ryan and her works.
Pat Mora's author Web site gives information about her bilingual books for adults, young adults, and children. She coined the word "Bookjoy" and promotes a children's book day called "Día" all year long through the American Library Association.
Barahona Center for the Study of Books in Spanish: Books About Latino Culture
The Barahona Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents at California State University, San Marcos has created a database of recommended books (in English) about Latino culture. The site has a sorting feature so users can sort by grade level, age, setting, or publisher.
Barahona Center for the Study of Books in Spanish: Books in Spanish
The Barahona Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents at California State University, San Marcos has created a database of books in Spanish. Search features include grade, country of origin, and topic.
Barefoot Books is a company offering children's books, CDs, and gifts designed to cultivate and encourage creativity, independence, and diversity.
Center for the Book (Library of Congress)
On behalf of books and reading, the Center for the Book serves as an advocate, a catalyst, and a source of ideas — both nationally and internationally. Its major themes and projects are reading and literacy promotion, the role of books and reading in today's society, the international role of books, the recognition and celebration of America's literary heritage, and the history of books and print culture.
The Children's Book Council is a non-profit trade organization dedicated to encouraging literacy and the use and enjoyment of children's books since 1945. The CBC sponsors Young People's Poetry Week and National Children's Book Week each year.
Children's Book Press is a nonprofit publishing house that promotes cooperation and understanding through multicultural and bilingual literature.
Children's Book Press: Educational Resources
Children's Book Press offers resources for educators, teachers, librarians, parents, and caregivers that can be used with their multicultural books, including teacher's guides, classroom units, and heritage celebration ideas.
Children's Literature Connection
The Children's Literature Connection is an organization dedicated to the advancement of children's literature. Goals include encouraging networking and collaboration among writers, illustrators, teachers, librarians, booksellers, publishers, editors, parents, and others, and strengthening the connection between the people who create children's books and the people who use them.
Cinco Puntos Press publishes a variety of titles for children, teens, and adults, many of which originate in the Southwestern United States. Their titles include many bilingual books, CDs, early readers, and folktales.
Cody's Cuentos produces free podcasts of classic fairytales translated into Spanish and read by a professional storyteller. The site mascot is a friendly cartoon dog named Cody. Users have the option of subscribing to receive new podcasts when they are available.
Celebrate the joy of reading with Cuentos y Más, a dynamic show offered by the Arlington Public Library in Arlington, VA and winner of the Outstanding Children's Program award by the Virginia Public Library Directors Association. The program features the talented and engaging bilingual storyteller Mariela Aguilar, who tells stories in English and Spanish and then visits places in the community such as the library. Produced for television, the program is now available as an online video for free viewing.
Scholastic BookFlix is an online resource available at no cost through the District of Columbia Public Library Web site for DC library card holders, and for purchase through Scholastic.com. BookFlix offers high-quality Flash video picture books to link fact and fiction and to promote early reading skills. Some materials are available in Spanish.
El Día de los niños/El Día de los libros
This section of Pat Mora's website offers information on how she founded the celebration, as well as updates on how libraries around the country celebrate the holiday each year on April 30th.
IGUANA is a Spanish-language magazine published for kids aged 7 to 12. Each issue is filled with stories, games, puzzles, interviews with prominent Latinos, recipes, project ideas, jokes, articles and more!
International Children's Digital Library
This digital library hosts a collection of books from around the world. Ultimately, this organization hopes to have every culture and language represented so that every child can know and appreciate the riches of children's literature available from the world community.
The Latin Baby Book Club Blog was created to provide parents with suggested reading for their families and to help children develop pride for their Latin culture through education and literature. The blog also strives to support Hispanic authors through monthly interviews and reviews of bilingual young adult and children's books.
LD Online a number of booklists that feature books for children with learning disabilities or ADHD. Titles include fiction and non-fiction, as well as guides for students on learning how to manage a learning disability.
Lectorum offers an English and a Spanish-language Web site for consumers to purchase adult and children's Spanish-language books online.
Lee & Low is an independent children's book publisher focusing on diversity. It is the company's mission to meet the need for stories that all children can identify with and enjoy.
Los Bloguitos, managed by children's authors and illustrators, is a Spanish-language blog for Spanish-speaking children. It highlights colorful tales, poetry, drawings, and more.
Nellie Edge: Free Little Books & Poetry
Free downloadable little books. Titles include authentic material such as "Eensy Weensy Spider and Five Little Monkeys." There are also a few Spanish language books such as, "Yo Tengo un Gato."
New York Public Library: Audiobooks Collection
This website allows New York Public Library users to browse the system's free online collection of audiobooks, e-books, video, and more. While users must have a NYPL card to access the database, it offers a helpful example of the kinds of resources that more libraries are using. Audiobooks are also available in Spanish.
Notes from the Horn Book, a free monthly e-newsletter, is perfect for parents, teachers, and anyone else looking for good new books for children and young adults. Written by the editors of the distinguished Horn Book Magazine, it is full of news, reviews, and interviews with noteworthy authors and artists.
Parents' Choice: Chicano and Chicana Books for Everyone
Parents' Choice reviews a sample of six Chicano books for children, discussing the ways that the books both resonate with Chicanos and enlighten and inspire readers of other backgrounds as well.
The Bookjoy Blog was founded by Pat Mora in 2008 to share some "joy of reading" events such as book festivals and Children's Day, especially in the context of the Latino community.
This award is named after Pura Belpré, the first Latina librarian at the New York Public Library. The Pura Belpré Award is presented to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.
Reading Rockets Themed Booklists
Reading Rockets highlights a wide variety of themed booklists for kids from 0-9 years old, compiled by children's literature expert Maria Salvadore. Topics range from seasons and holidays to different feelings, activities, games, and animals.
Reading Rockets: Video Interviews with Children's Authors
Reading Rockets shares exclusive video interviews with more than sixty renowned children's book authors and illustrators such as Tomie dePaola, Walter Dean Myers, Lois Lowry, and Nikki Giovanni.
Star Bright Books is an independent publishing company dedicated to producing the highest quality books for children. Star Bright Books produces books that embrace children of all colors, nationalities, and abilities, and they currently publish books in 16 languages.
The Screen Actors Guild Foundation produces this site, which presents audio and video clips of actors reading favorite children's books. Related activities are also included with each story.
StoryPlace is an interactive site for children (with both an English and Spanish version), created to provide a virtual experience of going to the library and participating in the types of activities the library offers. StoryPlace currently consists of two libraries, the Preschool Library and Elementary Library, with new activities and themes added each month.
SummerReading.org is a website hosted by the public libraries of New York, Brooklyn, and Queens. The website suggests bilingual books and activities for kids, teens, and adults, as well as other online resources.
Talking About Wordless Picture Books
Talking About Wordless Picture Books: A Tutor Strategy Supporting English Language Learners is designed to support tutors who are working with low-intermediate English language learner (ELL) parents in family literacy programs. Developed by NCFL with funding from UPS, the strategy provides detailed instructional activities to help ELL parents build and practice English conversational skills.
Weekly Reader: Spanish/Bilingual Books
The Weekly Reader Online sells sets of Spanish bilingual books for young elementary school children, including a number of titles related to content instruction.
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Your website is a wonderful source of information for me as an ESL
professional. I read all the articles for teachers and pass the relevant ones
on to my students' classroom teachers.
~ Kathryn B.
