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“This lighthearted look at the experience of foreignness deftly represents the sometimes-scary, sometimes-humorous process of becoming bilingual and the transformative effect of immersing yourself in a new language.”
—The Horn Book, Starred Review

“Children will be delighted by this whimsical deep dive into language, while new English speakers will surely place themselves in this middle of this ode to language as connector. Sensitive, clever, and unique.”
—School Library Journal

“[An] encouraging picture book. . . . Characters from multiple languages falling from clouds, bubbling from pots, or floating in a balloon add whimsical flair to the book’s sensitive support for language learners. . . .”
—Foreword Reviews

Another Tongue

Written by Yevgenia Nayberg
Illustrated by Yevgenia Nayberg
Published by Neal Porter Books

Your first language is often called your “mother tongue.” It’s solid and familiar, just like the tongue inside your mouth; it feels like home.

But what happens when you go to a new place, with a different mother tongue? Muddling through words you can’t understand can be mystifying, overwhelming. Sentences sound strange, letters may even look different. But don’t give up: with plenty of practice and a lot of mistakes, you can end up with two tongues!

Yevgenia Nayberg’s humor-infused prose and larger-than-life illustrations speak playfully to the complexity of learning a language, a process she went through herself when she emigrated from Ukraine. Kids who are currently finding their way in a new language will surely see themselves in Another Tongue, but no kid will be left out of this funny, approachable take on the way the words we use, and the way we use them, changes how we see the world.

Primary ISBN: 9780823459643
Publication Date: July 2026
Available As: Hardcover, eBook
Picture Book, Age 04 or older

Community Represented:

Themes: , , , ,

Setting: United States

Character's Place in the Immigration Journey: Immigrant

Book Creator(s) Connection to the Community Represented: Own Voices/Lived Experience

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