Best Bilingual Parenting Books

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Comprehensive list of bilingual parenting books for parents raising multicultural and multilingual kids.

You can’t raise bilingual kids on your own- it takes a village! Luckily there are tons of bilingual parenting books out there to help you with scientific information about bilingual brain development,  strategies for incorporating language into the home, and motivation for when kids experience language rebellion.

I am so thankful for all of the bilingual parenting books that have been authored with amor y carino by the amazing bilingual parents who have come before me. 

I remember like it was yesterday finding out I was pregnant and looking for bilingual parenting books before I even looked at baby development and pregnancy books. That’s how badly I wanted to ensure that I raised bilingual babies from day 1. 

Today I wanted to round up some of my favorite bilingual books by authors with bilingual kids of all different languages. These authors are experts- and a wealth of information and motivation for you. All you have to do is choose the one you want to read first!

If you are looking for more books, check out these Spanish novels.

Top Bilingual Parenting Books

Arroz con Pollo and Apple Pie: Raising Bicultural Children

Maritere Rodriguez Bellas has devoted her life to motivating parents on their bilingual and bicultural parenting journey, and this no-nonsene guide is a must read for all of us. Also, Maritere is a great person to follow on Instagram as she often features live interviews with some of the best bilingual parenting influencers in the space. 

Raising Bilingual Children: A Practical Guide

Another excellent book by Maritere, this one is more of a practical guide for parents looking to balance minority language and majority language as their children grow.

Related post: 4 Language Learning Methods

Teaching for Biliteracy: Strengthening Bridges between Languages

Disclaimer- this is not a parenting book- it’s an education book. But as a former bilingual teacher, I can attest to its authority on sharing the theory behind how bilingual brains work, and the best ways to foster biliteracy skills at home. A must-read for parents who don’t have access to bilingual schooling.

Related post: Choosing A School For Your Bilingual Child

Biliteracy from the Start: Literacy Squared in Action

Author Kathy Escamilla is one of the pioneers of bilingual education research, and this book teachers how to create strong foundations in reading and writing in multiple languages. It’s a teachers guide, but super applicable to bilingual families as well. 

Related post: 100 Bilingual Resources For Families

Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism

An authority in bilingualism and bilingual education from Purdue University. A fascinating teachers guide to bilingualism, that can also be a bit dense if you are not super into educational theory.

Bringing up a Bilingual Child

Rita Rosenback is a highly successful author, blogger and bilingual parenting coach who knows a ton about multilingual children. Her book is a must read for families who speak more than one language at home.

Maximize Your Child’s Bilingual Ability: Ideas and inspiration for even greater success and joy raising bilingual kids

Adam Beck is a bilingual parent raising kids in Japan and he knows so much about language development. I love his creative and simple ideas for quick ways to foster language acquisition in literally every aspect of your home life. 

If you want to hear a bit from Adam himself, check out this interview he did with me a few years ago on BilingualWe:

7 Steps to Raising a Bilingual Child

This is a step by step guide to raising bilingual children. If only it really were this easy! A great starting point for parents. 

The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind

This is not a bilingual parenting book in the traditional sense, but it’s an excellent read about how to help foster your child’s learning ability. This is especially important for those of us raising bilingual kids as their brains are doing a lot of heavy lifting. I love this book and refer to it often.

Related post: Bilingual Kids and Sleep

The Bilingual Edge: Why, When, and How to Teach Your Child a Second Language

This book is more a guide for parents who want their children to be bilingual and either don’t have the skills to do it themselves or don’t care which foreign language their kids learn. I do find it to be an interesting glimpse into the through process of families who are looking at bilingualism as a way to get ahead rather than a way of preserving familial culture and traditions.

An Introduction to Bilingual Development

A collection of four case studies that follow bilingual language development with different language profiles. It’s nerdy and interesting.

Bilingual Children: From Birth to Teens (Multilingual Matters)

George Saunders wrote one of the very first bilingual parenting books and this is it. It’s super motivating to read about the challenges we face as bilingual parents, and Saunders offers lots of practical advice and motivation for parents. 

How to Raise Confident Multicultural Children

I haven’t read this one yet but it looks interesting. 

Raising Multilingual Children

If you have people in your life that think raising multilingual kids will cause them to fall behind in the long run, then just hand them this book. 

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