World Wide Web: International Children’s Digital Library

Doesn’t the title say it all? It’s an International Children’s Digital Library. And it’s free! Books are searchable by country and award-winning, as well as through the traditional categories. North and Central America have 493 titles; South America has 103.

While browsing I came across a lovely little book in Spanish that was released in 1995. It’s titled “Intik’a: How the Taquileo island was not an island but a very tall mountain that was called Intik’a” and was written by Cronwell Jara Published by the North American Cultural Institute of Peru (ICPNA) & National Library of Peru (BNP), it ” is a magic story where men, birds, and gods talk and then create a document in which they describe the mythical thought of the people of the south Peruvian Andes.” The author, Jara, has been recognized for adopting a “perspective related to a view of authority as an oppressing force” and for elevating “ordinary men and women to the category of heroes” (Núria Vilanova, “The Emerging Literature of the Peruvian Underclass,” in Bulletin of Latin American Research 17(1), 1998).

Did I mention that the site authors have suggested teachers incorporate these books into their classroom through group story reading? If you have an Internet connection and projector, students could read right along with you and enjoy the illustrations being larger-than-life.

Since the very first book I chose proved to be a gem of beautiful verbal illustration and tacit social justice, I’m going to keep searching to see what other gems are in this free digital library.