Why is it Important to Have Bilingual Books in Our School Library?

As many Cavelero students most likely know, there are quite a few students at this school who are Bilingual, meaning that they speak another language that is not English.  Because of this, it is important to have books offered in other languages other than English. However, the process of obtaining these books can be difficult.

Our school’s librarian Hanna Hermes who is constantly looking for more bilingual books for our library stated, “You consider certain criteria, when it comes to bilingual books it is more of like filling a gap,” Hermes explains. “You kind of want those books based on the languages students speak at this school.”

Having Bilingual books available at our school library is especially important right now because of the war that is currently happening in Russia and Ukraine. Because of this war, there are many refugees and other people who are immigrating to different countries, one of which is the USA. Many of the people – or in this case, fellow students – don’t speak English, and if they do it is very limited. One way we can make students like this feel more comfortable or at home is by offering books in their native language, such as Russian or Ukrainian. However, it can be very difficult to get our hands on age-appropriate books in these languages. “Age rating too, it is a big problem with buying Ukrainian and Russian books because that is a big need but it is hard sometimes to find books that are published for teens.”  Hermes explains, “I can’t necessarily buy adult books which there are a lot more of.”

Also, another reason it can be difficult to obtain books in languages such as Russian or Ukrainian is because of the translation. If a book was originally written in English and then translated into a different language, that translation most likely will not be exact and could be difficult to understand and read. “Another issue we run into is that I want books that were written originally in Ukraine that are going to be quality versus a book that was translated from English that might not be very good quality. ” In order to get books that we know will make sense to students who speak and read in another language, we would need those books to have originally been written in that language which makes the hunt for these books considerably harder. 

Students who are bilingual still deserve to have books readily available for them in their native language. It can not only be comforting for students who speak that language, but it can also help their transition into a new school be a little easier.