Best Back To School Books For Multilingual Learners

The beginning of the school year is a great time to read back to school books, including those about starting at a new school, culture, respect, names, and identity. Diverse back to school books that feature a range of characters allow students to see their own and other cultures represented. It is especially important for MLs to read and listen to books where they see characters similar to themselves represented.

Here are some diverse back-to-school books to use for a read-aloud at the beginning of the school year, any time a new student joins your class, or anytime during the year that students need a reset. Many of these back to school books make great writing prompts or mentor texts.

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Collaboration Station– is part of a series of back to school books. This book focuses on students working together. Other books by the same author include A Letter From Your Teacher: On the First Day of School, which is written from a teacher’s perspective to their students. It welcomes them and encourages students to share about themselves and try their best. In Our Class Is a Family, Students discover that their teacher and classmates can be like their family. This book is full of diverse characters, shows examples of ways that students can help each other, and take risks when they are at school.

School’s First Day of School tells the story of the first day of school from the point of view of the school building. At first, the school is nervous about having new children inside of it. Throughout the day, it comes to enjoy the excitement of having kids inside of it.

 Scarecited on the First Day of School– In this story, students can see that it is possible to have conflicting emotions about the same event. Join Afua on her first day of school.

Say My Name– Shows the cultural significance of names, along with emphasizing the importance of pronouncing names correctly. 

Your Name is a Song– This book tells the story of a young girl who is upset after her teacher and classmates are unable to pronounce her name. Her mother tells her that “your name is a song” and helps her to see how names are unique and special.

Read about additional books that show the importance of student names.

What Are My Words: A Book About Pronouns– Follows a child as they interact with people around their neighborhood and learn what their pronouns are. The child discovers that it is ok to be unsure of what their current pronouns are, and for them to change. Read about additional books that teach about gender identity.

I Am More Than– In this book by Lebron James, read about believing in yourself and setting goals in a whimsical rhyming book. This book would make a good introduction to a lesson on goal setting.

All Are Welcome– This book describes a classroom and how children work and play. After each description, it gives the refrain “All are welcome here.” The illustrations show kids from diverse backgrounds. There is also an easy reader with simplified text called Welcome Back by the same author.

I’m New Here & Someone New are both books that tell the story of kids new to the United States from the perspectives of the new students and their classmates. The books offer “mirrors and windows” into the newcomer experience.

Mariama: Different But Just the Same– In this book follow a girl as she moves from a country in Africa to the United States. She finds everything different and strange. Over time she learns that there are many similarities between the people living in her new country and makes new friends.

Yes! We Are Latinos: Poems and Prose About the Latino Experience– This book is a collection of free-verse poems telling the stories of 13 young Latinos. Each speaker starts out telling the same information: My name is___, I am___, I live in___, I am___.  They go on to share information about their life and culture. After each poem is a section that gives more information about the speaker’s country of origin.