And why stock it? Why promote it? Why incorporate it into your teaching? And why seek it out as a gift for the young people in your life?

And why you – as an adult – should read international children’s books!

1. Children deserve to feel they and their families are represented in the books they encounter at school and in the library. That includes reflecting ethnic diversity, disability and neurodiversity, diverse family structures, as well as cultural and linguistic diversity.

2. Books translated into English from other languages are a window onto the world. It’s estimated that only 5% of the world’s population speaks English as a main language, so if we read books that are translated into English from other languages we open up a whole world of rich, diverse perspectives.

3. Reading and discussing books translated from other languages helps young people value and feel proud of their own language skills and family heritage. Our home languages might not always be represented at school and in our public lives, but reading books by writers and illustrators who speak our family languages can strengthen the bond to that family heritage.

4. Celebrating your community’s rich linguistic and cultural landscape. Getting to know the work of authors, illustrators, poets, artists and translators from other countries, and who write in other languages besides English, is a powerful way to showcase diverse perspectives, while valuing links to local multilingual and multicultural communities. These connections help young people value their own family heritage and experiences.

5. Broader reading, richer learning. Reading children’s and YA books from around the world can enrich the English curriculum, language studies, and the humanities. Global books offer contrasting viewpoints on global issues, and stories by authors with lived experience of other countries and cultures can bring authentic, real-world diversity to the classroom or to young people’s bookshelves.

6. International books open up our horizons to new ideas of what children’s literature is, and even what a book can be! While English language children’s publishing can seem rigid in its expectations about what readers want and are ready for, translated and imported books can offer a greater range of possibilities for reading for pleasure, whether it’s narrative non-fiction for teens, comics and graphic novels (bandes dessinées in French), and picture books for older readers.

7. We are facing an unprecedented climate catastrophe and a global climate refugee crisis, and at the same time an emboldened far right unfairly scapegoating refugees and migrants for the failures of governments. Now more than ever, we need to raise a generation literate in global justice, aware of how interconnected we are in our actions, and inspired in our potential to make a change for good.

8. Translation builds bridges. Reading books in translation, especially comparing them with the original language edition, helps children see that having two or more languages is a kind of superpower … and an essential asset that can build bridge.

These are just a few reasons to start exploring international books for young people, and to celebrate World Kid Lit Month in your school, your community, your family … or on your own!