Another Tongue
by Yevgenia Nayberg
Neal Porter Books (Holiday House), 2026. 36 pages.
Review written September 23, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review
This picture book explains simply to children what it’s like to move to a country where they speak a different language from the one you were born hearing.
Here’s how it begins:
This is your tongue. [Picture of a kid sticking out their tongue]
This is your mother’s tongue. [Picture of a woman holding a toothbrush and sticking out her tongue.]
The first language you learn is also called a mother tongue!
It is the first language you hear as a baby.
The book goes on to talk about how you learn all the words in your mother tongue.
Different countries have different mother tongues.
When you come to a new country, you may not understand the language at first.
Your ears may get tired of listening to the new language.
The new language may taste funny on your tongue.
There are amusing pictures with all of that, and collaged letters flying around the pages.
It goes on to talk about learning the new language, some words being easier than others, and often making mistakes.
But little by little,
the new words will
begin to make sense.They will connect.
They will feel
like your own.And from then on, you will be bilingual. Which means someone with two tongues!
What’s your mother tongue?
It’s all so simple, and by addressing the entire book to the reader, you feel the frustrations and triumphs of trying to get another language right. The pictures are imaginative, and the examples are silly (“Vampire State Building”), and it’s a delightful story about an abstract concept becoming understandable to kids.
Added later: I love the book all the more after looking up the author and discovering she’s Ukrainian.
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/another_tongue.html
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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.
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