A big part of our site here is to introduce you to a variety of children’s books, so you can explore themes that you would like to read in your own minority language homeschool. You can be assured that we read every single book here in our home. Since we generally read in Portuguese, German, and English, you will find the reviews based on one language specifically. This is for example interesting if translations change character names, or if we share pictures of the books, or if we mention publisher information. While we try to always link back to all three languages, sometimes not all books are localised in all languages.
“The Invisible” - Tom Percival
Isabel lives with her parents in a house where it is very cold - it is winter and the parents actually don’t have enough money to keep the heating on.
“The Gruffalo’s Child” - Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler
Naturally, the Gruffalo’s child has heard about the worst mouse-monster that ever existed in the forest.
“The Gruffalo” - Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler
The story is about the smartest mouse in the entire forest. The fox, the owl, and the snake all want to catch and eat the mouse.
“The Snow Thief” - Alice Hemming, Nicola Slater
Another season to be discovered by the oblivious Squirrel! This time, Squirrel and Bird are dealing with winter time, and a snowy night turned Squirrel’s world upside down.
“A Zebra Zezé” - Alberto Faria, Ana Ventura
The book “The Zebra Zezé” tells a lovely story about the little zebra that cannot distinguish her family or friends from other zebras. She is constantly mixing up who is who and often times end up not finding her own family.
“The Leaf Thief” - Alice Hemming, Nicola Slater
Squirrel can’t believe that one of its leaves is missing from the tree and it is accusing everyone in the forest of stealing the leaves.
“A Squash and a Squeeze” - Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler
The old lady lives in a small house and complains about her lack of space. And the old wise man suggests to invite more and more animals into the house!
“Stars and Planets” - Pierre Winters, Margot Senden
This is a non-fiction book giving a first introduction to stars and planets in a very light tone.
“Five More Minutes” - Marta Altés
An inspiring book about time, and its value for children. From the perspective of the children, time flies very differently than how it is perceived by their loving dad who seems to just barely keep up.
“Mein Elefant will nicht ins Bett” - Cee Neudert, Susanne Göhlich
When it is time for Anna to go to bed, this is not initially met with acceptance. The beloved elephant at Anna's side still has many needs, which Anna takes as a reason why she can't go to bed before then. And dad takes the time to work through her wishes.
“Meesha Makes Friends” - Tom Percival
Fiona finds it very difficult to make friends. She doesn't know how and where to start to make a connection with others. Even though she perceives the world in all sensory facets and can combine them, she often finds it difficult to understand other people. Until she finds her own way of being herself and living out her personality.
“Pumpkin Soup” - Helen Cooper
Life is good for Cat, Squirrel, and Duck. They live together, they cook the best soup together, they make music together. Every day is the same pleasure. Then, Duck wakes up and wants to shake things up.
“The Bug Collector” - Alex G. Griffiths
When George visits the insect museum with his Grandad, his love for bug is unstoppable. As he sees the big collection in the museum, he wants to build his own - live - display of all the bugs he can find in the garden.
“Here we are” - Oliver Jeffers
What would you like your new baby to know about our world? What would you like to teach them? This book gives you just that: a beautiful introduction to what our world is, easily understood and illustrated.
“A Bear and a Tree” - Stephen Michael King
The bear meets Lia just before her big winter sleep. They spend another day together and embrace winter together.
“Mimosa não quer tomar banho” - Alexander Steffensmeier
The cow Mimosa is playing with the other farm animals, when the female farmer calls for bath time for all the animals. They all get happily washed, apart from Mimosa.
“Confusão na Montanha” - Donaldo Buchweitz
The ostrich lays her eggs uphill. When one egg rolls downhill, an entire locomotion is set out bringing the biggest confusion to the hill.
“Little Monkey” - Marta Altés
Will the little monkey be able to experience the greatest adventures in her beloved forest? Even if her group leaves her out of all the fun? And what is that tiger up to?
“The Blue Umbrella” - Emily Ann Davison, Momoko Abe
The little girl finds a small blue umbrella on her doorsteps, and takes it with her on the journey. When it starts raining, she only has eyes for all the other people getting wet, and the little girl tries to get them all underneath the little blue umbrella.
“The Adventures of Lowly Worm” - Richard Scarry
A collection of stories centred around Lowly Worm from Richard Scarry’s Busytown. Some stories extend on each other and tell a bigger continuous story. While others are stand-alone little readings about Lowly, Huckle and the Cat family.