ABOUT OUR project

Every child deserves the joy of being read to in their mother tongue—the language of their heart—where they feel confident and can express their deepest feelings. A solid foundation in their home language not only paves the way for learning new languages but also acts as a powerful lever for their overall linguistic development.

This project is a joint effort by five Dutch reading promotion organizations. To encourage reading in multilingual families, read-aloud videos in Moroccan, Syrian Arabic, Polish, and Turkish were created and were made available on Jeugdbibliotheek.nl. In each video a picture book is read aloud in one of the languages while the illustrations are displayed and classical music is played. Informative videos are also available in which the readers talk about the richness of multilingualism and the power of the home language. The videos are available for free to all children (and their parents) with a Dutch library membership and can also be viewed in public libraries throughout the Netherlands. The libraries hold the multilingual collection with the picture books underlying the videos.

Additionally, ten public libraries participate in a pilot program to incorporate the multilingual videos and picture books into various reading promotion programs. This way, reading educators (including library staff, reading volunteers, pedagogical staff and teachers) empower parents, strengthening their skills in promoting reading and nurturing a love for books in their children.

This project (100 multilingual videos in Arabic, Polish and Turkish) was realized with support from the Pica Foundation, the organization that promotes scientific and public information provision, among other things, by financing projects. More information about the Pica Foundation can be obtained from the secretary of the Pica Foundation.

The language of your heart 

Every child deserves to be read to in their home language. The home language is the language of the heart, in which you can express your feelings, in which you are confident, in which you can add nuances, and convey information. When children learn a good foundation in the home language, it acts as a lever for learning a second language (the school language). Multilingualism is an enrichment! 

A family approach 

When children grow up in a rich language environment, they develop their language skills. With the videos and the picture books in the home language, the public libraries support parents to offer their children a lot and rich language and to have fun with books together. Library staff, reading volunteers, pedagogical staff and teachers strengthen the parents in their role as reading educators.  

meet our professional readers:

Gulnar

Syrian Arabic

Johnathan

American English

Hicham

Moroccan Arabic

David

British English

Gosia

Polish

Mariela

Mexican Spanish

Gosia

Turkish

Anouk

Dutch

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