My Language, Your Language

Cloverleaf Books ™ - Alike and Different

by Lisa Bullard, Paula J. Becker (Illustrator)

There's a new girl in Romelie's class named Camila. Camila speaks Spanish, and she's teaching it to Romelie. That gets Romelie thinking. What other languages do people speak? Her own family uses English and American Sign Language. Her mom's friend knows Somali and Arabic. Can Romelie discover more languages in her city? How are they like her own? How are they different? A diverse cast gives multiple points of comparison.

Genres: Picture Books, Nonfiction, Cultural

24 pages, Library Binding

First published April 1, 2015

About the author

Lisa Bullard is the award-winning author of more than sixty books for children, including the middle grade mystery Turn Left at the Cow. She is also the author of the how-to guide Get Started in Writing for Children. Her books for younger readers include picture books and nonfiction titles such as Trick-or-Treat on Milton Street and You Can Write a Story: A Story-Writing Recipe for Kids. Her books have won several honors, including a Children’s Choice Award, two Teacher’s Choice Awards, a Science Books & Films’ Best Books listing, a National Parenting Publications Children's Resources Silver Award, and a Storytelling World Awards Honor Title. For over fifteen years, Lisa has taught writing classes for adults and young people at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis and in a variety of other settings. Lisa is a graduate of the University of Denver’s Publishing Institute.

Reviews

[Kara Burks · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Language, Your Language shows an authentic way for students to recognize all the languages in their own life. Romelie has made a new friend in her class who can speak spanish. Romelie uses ASL at home because her brother is deaf. Because her new friend speaks a new language she starts to notice all the languages that surround her and in doing so becomes excited to learn more. I like this book because it is an authentic way to get students to start noticing what's around them. The book also includes backmatter that tells you the ASL alphabet as well as words in some different languages. The book itself does not include that much in another language but I think it is an important book because it shows where students can start seeing other languages around them. The illustrations also show accurate signs happening when they are mentioning those signs and I think that is awesome. There are also facts on most of the pages such as “English and Spanish are the two most spoken languages”. This book would be good for any grade school student. This author is clearly trying to express the importance of other languages being present in student lives and does so in a way students can identify with. The language keeps readers interested and the story is fast enough paced that students can be kept guessing about where Romelie will find another language next. This book would make an excellent interactive read aloud.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary- The story was about a young girl discovers that there are all types of different languages being used around her in her community. Her and her mother play a language game to seek out all of these languages and learn a little bit about each. She ends up finding language on street signs, apparel, on hair products. She also hears other languages like Spanish, Hmong, and Somali.

Review- I think this is a great book to introduce different languages. The book offers little side notes at the bottom of pages to promote discussion about language. I also liked how the text explained when people use their different languages and great illustrations to show that language goes along with different cultures and religions.

Connect- websites- culture for kids http:/ /www.exploreandmore.org/world/default.htm , pbs kids: author sign design http:/ /pbskids.org/author/print/signdesign/ , say hello to the world http:/ /www.ipl.org/div/hello/index.html

Quote: “Marian speaks three languages! She knows Somali and English. And she says her prayers in Arabic”. This quote supports social justice so that people can translanguage. They do not have to lose their home culture and their identity to assimilate to the culture of where they live.

[Marina Mukhin · Rating 4 out of 5]

“My Language, Your Language” by Lisa Bullard tells a story about two friends who teach eachother their languages that they speak at home. They are both bilingual characters that know American Sign Language and the Spanish language. This picture book could be categorized as a non-fiction children’s literature book that introduces the theme of language and how that makes us different and alike from one another. This book allows readers the opportunity to emerge themselves in different cultures and take a glimpse at different languages. I appreciated the fact that this book not only had a glossary but a pronunciation guide for readers trying to navigate through all the words being introduced. It also presented the entire ASL guide for students to be able to imitate and practice their signing. This story also includes particular questions on each page that allows students to think about the different ways that language affects our world. It also urges them to appreciate and learn about the languages we have around the world. I particularly enjoyed this book because of the way it portrays the knowledge of a language other than English. Although I wish there were more words and an emphasis on empowering the languages that we know, I genuinely enjoyed reading this book.

[Lindsay Thornton]

This book is about a new girl in class who speaks Spanish. The little girl then teaches Spanish to her friend. This gets the main character Romelie thinking about language. She realizes her family uses both English and American Sign Language. Other families she knows speak Somali and Arabic. This is a great and educational children's book showing that there are so many different languages that all people speak. It gets children thinking about how everyone is different and no matter what language a person speaks it's important to respect that and learn about their language. I would use this book specifically to teach children about bilingual or even trilingual speakers. I would like to develop the idea that learning about language is crucial to a well-rounded education. This book would help to increase their literacy skills while also learning about the different language across the world

[Parker Thornton · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Language, Your Language is by Lisa Bullard, the story talks about two girls Romelie, and Camila who becomes friends. Camila teaches Romelie some Spanish, because Camila speaks Spanish with her family. Romelie realizes that at home her family speaks English and Sign Language. Romelie spends her weekend seeing how many different languages she is surrounded by all throughout her town. Romelie learns about languages from all around the world.

This book is a great way to show children how to emerge themselves into different cultures, and it is a good read. There are lots of interesting moments throughout the book. I have always liked books that can show children that diversity is everywhere. This is why I rated this book the way I did. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to read it.

[Karleigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very informative and teaches children the importance of other languages and how fun it can be to learn them. The book starts off with two girls in school who both speak other languages besides English, one of the girls speaks ASL and the other speaks Spanish. They like to share their languages with each other and teach each other what they know. Romelie goes home from school and she and her mom see how many other languages they can find in their everyday lives. Romalie goes back to school and is very excited to show Camila what she learned. I gave this book 5 stars because it is a very good resource for teaching children that there are other languages all around us besides English if you look for them. This book does a really good job of highlighting other languages that exist and getting them excited about languages that aren't English.

[Menna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very unique because it is about a girl who knows one language which is Spanish & another girl knows another language which is Sign Language. Camilla teaches kids in her class how to speak Spanish, and they learn from her. Romelie teaches Camilla sign language. They both take the time out to learn from each other with their two different languages. I love this book because it is a way for students to learn from each other and not be mean to each other. This book has a great lesson in it which shows how we can learn different languages from one another.

[Jordin Oostenryk]

I enjoyed reading this book because it gives such a clear representation of just how many people in your everyday life can speak a different language. As English is a language used the most in the United States, there are so many languages that are catching up to it. This story focuses mainly on English, Spanish, and American-Sign-Language, but it introduces such a broad spectrum of languages to its readers. This would make a great tool to teach students about just how many languages there are in the world and you never know who can speak them.

[Elizabeth Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy learning, these illustrations are so colorful, fun, great to just stare at and enjoy!! I am really enjoying Lisa Bullard's book ...this time i got 6 book to check out from Kindle Unlimited: Chelsea's Chinese New Year, Kevin's Kwanzaa, Rashad's Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, Daniel's Day of the Dead, My Language, Your Language ..., My Family, Your Family...,

[Sarah Threlkeld · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as strong as other titles in the series, but still a good resource for elementary libraries and classrooms.

[Miss Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A child learns about all the langauges in the world around them from shampoo bottles to the languages spoken by friends. Elementary and up

[Kaileen Avila]

Goodreads 8/30

[Jillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite of this series, but it's still good. I like the challenge of looking for languages wherever you can - especially pointing out that lots of street signs in the US come from Native American languages. I just wish there had been a little extra cultural explanation (like the friend from Somalia who explains that she not only speaks her native language, but also prays in Arabic) instead of going to the grocery store and looking at labels, or reading the shampoo bottle.

[Pamela Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The narrator learns new languages from classmates and friends on the playground while describing that there are many languages in the world.