Reading plays an essential role in children’s personal development. By immersing themselves in different stories and characters, children not only develop empathy but also learn to be more tolerant of different ways of life and perspectives. Reading fosters creativity, concentration and resilience. In short: reading makes children strong! Many children grow up multilingual. This is a great treasure. To harness this multilingual potential, including for the language classes are taught
in schools, the Municipal Integration Centre (KI) of the District of Soest has developed several ‘Reading Makes You Strong’ reading boxes.

What’s inside a reading box?
• Bilingual books featuring a story in various language combinations (e.g. German-Arabic, German-English),
• an educational folder containing cross-curricular teaching materials and ideas,
• a ‘class helper and language expert’ – a hand puppet or soft toy that accompanies the use of the reading box.

How does it work?
In the classroom, a story from the ‘1001 Languages’ picture book project is brought to life. The story’s content is explored in a language-sensitive and creative way, not only in German and reading lessons but also in other subjects such as maths, PE, music and science.
It is often the case that we are unaware of which languages children can speak, understand or read outside school. To find this out, teachers in the Soest district have access to a questionnaire entitled “My Languages” along with instructions for interpreting the results. Based on the results, the reading boxes can then be ordered. The KI oft the District Soest subsequently stocks them with appropriate bilingual books. Schools in the Soest district can borrow the reading boxes free of charge for six months and use them individually in lessons or for project work.

Further information at:
www.zuhause-im-kreis-soest.de/

Illustration: Jessica Schneidmiller

Old packaging as a stage for the characters in your picture book. Sometimes you can look through packaging waste and find something that is great for illustration. In the picture book ‘A Party in the Amazon’, the illustrators used an old cheese box to bring the characters to life. What a great idea! Maybe you can also find some packaging that can be used in a completely new way!

For ‘The Gift of a Dream’, a group of young people set out to create scenes with small wooden puppets in the Bücherpiratenhaus and in Lübeck's city centre. Here they can play with light, perspective and focus. The backdrops were stacks of chairs, the piano, an old typewriter or the bicycle stands in front of the house. Anything could be turned into a landscape or a room.

Finally holding your own picture book in your hands... for many of the authors and illustrators, this is a very special moment. Hours of inventiveness, creativity, imagination, stories and colourful liveliness now become visible. It is especially nice when the picture book can also be printed in the respective family language. Even children who don't like to read very much pick up their own book again and again and want to read it aloud at home. This shows how much self-efficacy the children can experience in the projects and learn to understand themselves as storytellers and picture makers.

There are many ways to create a print version of a picture book. It doesn't have to be a professional binding for it to feel like a fully-fledged book. You can simply download the file (select the format "book"), print it out (or have it printed) and stitch it yourself. If you want it to be a little more selective, you can have the book printed by a professional printer. So there are numerous possibilities from self-stitching to ring binders to a bound edition. If you have any questions please contact us. If you would like the book to be printed in one or more specific languages, please get in touch with us. Perhaps we can find volunteers in our network to translate the story.

Let's reproduce these wonderful picture books and make them accessible to as many people as possible!

Characters made from beads...
The pupils of Groß Steinrade primary school had the great idea of creating their characters from iron-on beads. With the help of suitable templates, the creative process can be supported and the pictures can be wonderfully decorated with everyday objects such as bottle caps or plastic nets. Perhaps this is the right inspiration for you. Have fun with it!

At the festival of cultures in Fürstenfeldbruck in Germany, the association Turmgeflüster set up a mobile writing workshop. The book “Stories As Colourful as the World” was created in just one afternoon! Children and youths could come to the event and spontaneously draw and write one page of the picture book. In total, eleven children and youths participated. The youngest, Elea, was only three years old. She designed the title page. Where would you set up a mobile writing workshop?

The joint community Gellersen in Germany made some very special christmas gifts this year. For each of the 46 children living in refugee accomodations in Gellersen, the community printed the bilingual picture book "The Glass Ring". First they chose one of the stories on www.bilingual-picturebooks.org. Next they downloaded the book in German and Arabic, Farsi, Spanish, Ukranian, Russian, or Englisch, the childrens' native languages. Finally, they printed the books in an A4 format. The integration commissioner Britta Müller explained: „In school and kindergarten the children learn German much more quickly than their parents. The families can read the bilingual picture books together." Steffen Gärtner, the Mayor, added: "We want to bring the children some joy for christmas and at the same time increase solidarity in the family and build bridges."

In the picture you can see: Mayor Steffen Gärtner (right), integration commisioner Britta Müller (2nd f. r.) and Holger Schölzel (left) giving Mohana (10) from Iran and her parents the bilingual picture book wrapped in paper and some chocolate.

How does the future actually come about? The sustainable development goals are a vision of how we would like to live in the future created by 193 different countries . Children in Serbia have also been pondering this question. You can see their results in the picture above. In our book "How does the future actually come about?" we have collected questions asked by children from all over the world about the future and the sustainable development goals. With these questions and the pictures from the book school children in Pozega in Serbia created a presentation right on their market square. On different boards visitors were invited to read the questions from the book and the sustainable development goal they belong to. Additionally, the children drew their own paintings for the pages. You can see our favorite page on the board in the picture above. The question on this page is: Where do the words in my head come from?

A Kamishibai is a frame made of wood which can open to reveal what is inside. It comes from Japan. The name can be traslated as papertheatre, Kami meaning paper and Mishibai meaning theatre. A Kamishibai is a great way to read picturebooks with groups of children. Simply put the Illustration into the Kamishibai and then read the text of the page aloud, then switch pictures and turn to the next page. Of course this is also possible with the picturebooks on www.bilingual-picturebooks.org. You can simply print out the pictures of one of our books and place them into the Kamishibai. Haave fun making your own papertheatre!