The Co-Lingual-S storybook
A multilingual children’s book, result of a participatory research project with multilingual families.colingual
Download: English Nederlands
Find it in the library: Bibliotheek Sans Souci (Elsene, Brussels), Bibliotheek De Lettertuin (Sint-Pieters-Woluwe, Brussels), Bibliotheek Tervuren (Tervuren), docAtlas (Antwerpen)
Photo: Zsolt Magyari & Alexandra Kocsis
Why was this book created?
Books that authentically represent the life of multilingual children and families are scarce. Teachers also often lack creative resources that may support their work in multilingual classrooms. So we set out to create a children’s book that may be a useful resource for families, teachers, and anyone interested in languages.
What is it about?
This booklet is organised in 10 chapters, each telling a story about a family that use two or more languages on an everyday basis. The stories portray everyday moments from multilingual family life.
This book is special because…
Photos: Zsolt Magyari & Alexandra Kocsis
1. It is based on real-life events.
2. It is outcome of a collaborative process.
3. It is multilingual.
In our research project, we talked with parents and children, and asked them to draw or take photos of their everyday lives. The chapters of the book are based on these stories that we heard as part of the research.
Researchers, families and creative artists collaborated in the making of this book. We transformed real stories and real images into fictional stories and professional illustrations. The families participating in the research project were consulted at every step of the collaborative process.
These days more and more children’s books exist that represent diversity. However, multilingual children’s books are still rare. Our stories are written multilingually. There is one main narrative language (English or Dutch), but other languages appear as the characters speak with each other. Just like in real life!
Creators
Nikolett Szelei (researcher, writer, concept), Alison Soye (Illustrator), Alexandra Kocsis (graphic design), in collaboration with 10 multilingual families.
Advisor
Orhan Agirdag
Languages
Main narrative text in Dutch or English.
Conversational texts in Arabic, Dutch, English, French, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish,Turkish, Ukrainian.
Where can I find this book?
On this website! Scroll up and download. Some copies are also available in these libraries: Bibliotheek Sans Souci (Elsene, Brussels), Bibliotheek De Lettertuin (Sint-Pieters-Woluwe, Brussels), Bibliotheek Tervuren (Tervuren), docAtlas (Antwerpen).