Bilingual Board Books

Keith Baker
Photo credit: L. Cunningham

A great board book presents an idea or concept in simple terms, with artwork or photographs that support it. In Big Fat Hen / La gallina grande by Keith Baker, the author-artist counts from one to 10 using a well-known rhyme ("One, two, buckle my shoe") to do just that.

Translater Carlos E. Calvo chooses Spanish words that rhyme and that also add a touch of humor. For instance, when a blue hen lays four eggs and examines three worms ("three, four/ tres, cuatro"), the newly hatched four chicks, together, "shut the door/ cerramos la puerta un rato." Calvo indicates that it takes them awhile with the addition of the phrase "un rato," which also rhymes with "cuatro."

Creating a strong board book is not easy. The amount of text needs to be minimal, so youngest children who are just learning to identify letters, and perhaps sight words, can follow along. The illustrations need to support the text, rather than confuse toddlers who are just learning to name the people and objects in their world.

Bilingual board books add another layer of challenge because the words need to closely correlate to the words in English yet still be words that would be used in everyday conversations. Big Fat Hen accomplishes all of that -- simple, lively text with illustrations to support the counting concept, and a Spanish translation that's equally lively and allows both native Spanish speakers and native English speakers to experience the other language as naturally as possible.

Here are a few more bilingual board books or early picture books that several of my colleagues at the Bank Street College of Education found to be especially strong: Las fresas son rojas by Petr Horácek; My School / mi escuela by Rebecca Emberley; My Colors, My World / Mis Colores, Mi Mundo by Maya Christina Gonzalez; My Skeleton Family by Cynthia Weill, illus. by Jesús Canseco Zárate.

Celebrating Pura Belpré

Dora the Explorer has introduced hundreds of thousands of children to Spanish and English in an inviting, playful way. And that’s just what the girl hero does in My Colors, My World/Mis Colores, Mi Mundo, written and illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez. In making these enticing words familiar to youngest children, the author helps bridge the communication gap between young people who speak different languages.

My Colors, My World/Mis Colores, Mi Mundo won a Pura Belpré Honor in 2008. Pura Belpré (1899-1992) was the first Latina librarian to work for the New York Public Library. She served the Spanish-speaking populations of first Spanish Harlem in Manhattan and, later, the Bronx. How frightening it can be for a child in a land where his or her language is rarely spoken outside the home but then to discover someone like Pura Belpré, who welcomed young people in their native language and could introduce them to stories from their own heritage and also the stories of their new home.

The American Library Association (ALA) and REFORMA established the Pura Belpré Award to honor “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.” One of the Pura Belpré books honored for illustration at ALA a little over a week ago was The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred by Samantha R. Vamos, illustrated by Rafael López. (For a complete list of winners at ALA, visit our Home Page.)

So much of early childhood is about looking for affirmation from others like you, who like the things you do and who literally speak your language. Pura Belpré did so much to help children feel at home with themselves and their world, and to find the stories that helped them see their world reflected back to them. As Pura Belpré did so many years ago, the heroine of My Colors…/Mi Colores speaks directly to the child who’s holding her story, as if to say, this is my world, won’t you join me?