Books

Children's books in the
languages most publishers overlook.

Apps teach the words. Books carry the stories. For heritage learners — and especially for families raising bilingual children — printed books in your language are one of the most powerful tools there is.

That's why we run a sister project, Heritage Languages, publishing children's books in languages the major publishers ignore.

The catalog

Languages with books available.

A growing list. New titles are added regularly — if your language isn't here yet, it likely will be.

  • Swahili
  • Yoruba
  • Twi
  • Amharic
  • Tigrinya
  • Oromo
  • Igbo
  • Hausa
  • Lingala
  • Wolof
  • Haitian Creole
  • Jamaican Patois
  • Chuukese
  • Fijian
  • Tongan
  • Somali

Why books matter for heritage learners

An app is a daily habit. A book is a shared one — read out loud at bedtime, passed between grandparents and grandchildren, kept on a shelf long after a streak has lapsed. For families raising children with a heritage language, both belong in the toolkit.

Books also do something an app can't: they give a language a place in the home. A child who has never seen Twi or Tigrinya or Chuukese on a printed page grows up assuming those languages don't belong on printed pages. Books quietly correct that.