International Reading Association Newsletter Weekly Project: Effective Literacy Website #5

International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL)

(Image source retrieved from: http://en.childrenslibrary.org/)

            The International Children's Digital Library (ICDL) is a rich digital library that offers popular children's books from all over the world for free. The materials in the collection are presented in the original languages, in which they were published, as well as reflect similarities and differences in cultures, interests, and lifestyles of people around the world. As I was exploring, I found books in different languages such as English, Tagalog, French, and Spanish, just to name a few. The book collection's focus is on identifying materials that help children to understand the world around them and the global society in which they live in.

            Teachers, parents, children, and librarians can use the books for different purposes. Teachers can use the books to search for award-winning, or featured books to read to the class to create discussion. Teachers can also choose books to teach about multicultural and the different languages around the world. Librarians can enrich the community outreach programs with tales from around the world. Children can enjoy various books for pleasure and at their level. Moreover, parents can use the books to read to their children. What’s great about the website is that it offers books of different languages. This is very helpful for those who are English Language Learners. They will have access to books and they get to choose the level of reading by searching on the site. Overall, I think this digital library is a great resource to enhance and promote literacy in the classroom or at home because it gives opportunities to tap into children's interests and enhance teachers' skills as literacy mentors. I will definitely bookmark this page for future use when teaching about our multicultural diversity.