The ICDL has an absolutely fantastic website that you can browse around for hours. I got hooked into it when doing this article and spent far too long poking around and reading books. They have books in English, Arabic, Mongolian, Farsi, for example. It’s worth looking at just for the wonderful book covers. Their new iPad app will link to over 4,000 titles in 54 languages representing 64 countries.
Here is their mission statement:
The mission of the International Children’s Digital Library Foundation (ICDL Foundation) is to support the world’s children in becoming effective members of the global community – who exhibit tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages and ideas — by making the best in children’s literature available online free of charge. The Foundation pursues its vision by building a digital library of outstanding children’s books from around the world and supporting communities of children and adults in exploring and using this literature through innovative technology designed in close partnership with children for children.
(via Resource Shelf)
It’s good to know children’s literacy is becoming more available, especially as literacy is so necessary to becoming successful in a quickly globalizing, high tech world. Beginning readers are not only learning how to connect printed words to the images they represent, but also the words we use in everyday communication (and vice versa). This is why picture books for young children can be so effective.
(Note… I work for the company I’m about to mention, so take this recommendation with a grain of salt.) We’ve built a service called A Story Before Bed (www.astorybeforebed.com) which offers parents and their little ones an opportunity to video record themselves reading children’s books online together for free. I think this can be another tool in a parent’s literacy arsenal.
I’d love to get everyone’s feedback on our service and how it does or doesn’t meet your needs.