A Curated Collection of 89 Translanguaging Books
Libros for Language is a digital library designed to support teachers in finding and using translanguaging books to support fluid language practices in their classrooms. The books on this site are examples ofauthors and illustratorswho incorporate LOTE (Languages Other Than English) in their work, just as all multilingual people do in their daily lives.
What is Translanguaging?
Translanguaging is a natural phenomenon in which bilingual and multilingual people draw from all their linguistic resources to make meaning, mixing and integrating their languages in fluid, dynamic ways depending on context and purpose. Translanguaging is also a powerful teaching tool, with which teachers (both monolingual and multilingual) can create classroom spaces that embrace all forms of linguistic expression and encourage emerging multilingual students to use their full linguistic repertoires as they work toward their academic goals.
Libros for Language is a resource for both monolingual and bilingual teachers.
If you are trying to incorporate quality mentor texts into your existing curricular units, try browsing by topic or grade level. If you have only one or two languages represented in your classroom, searching by language may be preferable so you can best meet the needs of your students.
This site is meant to serve as a digital bibliography with some key information to guide your selections. We do not offer specific curriculum ideas or lesson plans to accompany the texts, because we believe the best way to implement a book will depend on the needs of particular students, teachers, and contexts. We also believe in teacher autonomy and expertise, and offer a variety of resources to help guide your study of translanguaging.
Over time, we hope the site can become a repository for the exchange of teachers’ and librarians’ collective knowledge and expertise in utilizing mentor texts.
Meet the Team
Meg Burns, Ph.D.
Meg is an Associate Professor of TESOL and Bilingual Education in the Graduate School of Education at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA and a former Dual Language teacher. She teaches courses in first and second language acquisition, early language and literacy development, sheltered English instruction, culturally responsive pedagogy, family and community engagement, and qualitative research methods. Meg is a Past President of the Multistate Association for Bilingual Education, Northeast and sits on the English Learner and Bilingual Advisory Council for the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. She received her Ph.D. in Educational Equity and Cultural Diversity from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Grace Enriquez, Ed.D.
A former English Language Arts teacher and literacy staff developer, Grace bridges her work with teachers and students with ethnographic, critical, and collaborative research in high-needs urban populations to examine their responses to literacy instruction in school contexts. Specifically, her scholarship focuses on children’s literature for social justice; critical literacies; reader response; intersections of literacies, identities, and embodiment; and the teaching of writing. Grace’s work has been published in a variety of national and international refereed journals. She also serves on national literacy committees and editorial review boards. She is the Feature Editor for the Teaching with Children's Literature column of The Reading Teacher, as well as co-author of The Classroom Bookshelf, a blog published weekly by the School Library Journal.
Jadzia Genece
Logo Design & Iconography
Jadzia Genece is a 2020 BFA graduate from Lesley's Graphic Design program. She enjoys creating futurist, forward-thinking designs through image-making and typography.
Manny Ikomi (he/him)
User Experience & Web Development
Manny is a class of 2022 BFA graduate from Lesley University’s Interactive Design program. He enjoys content creation, gaming, and tinkering with new tech.
Funded by the American Library Association's Carnegie-Whitney Grant
The Carnegie-Whitney Awards have been established to provide grants for the preparation and publication of popular or scholarly reading lists, indexes and other guides to library resources that will be useful to users of all types of libraries.