Book Week Scotland

Book Week Scotland

Book Week Scotland is an annual celebration of books and reading that takes place across the country during November. The Scottish Book Trust runs a programme of events and initiatives enabling everyone to get involved.

With the Scottish International Storytelling Festival also taking place during autumn as well as World Nursery Rhyme Week in November there's lots to celebrate in terms of language and cultural diversity in the classroom.

For our part, we like to encourage language learners to celebrate these events by reading stories and singing songs from across the globe. Here we provide some suggested links and resources to help achieve this in the classroom.

The team at Languages Connect has also produced a reading list of suggested foreign language titles categorised by language and age group teachers may find useful.

We created a simple short story in French for primary learners 'Le petit ballon violet'. Here are a few suggestions as to how this could be used with your class:

  • What happens next? Have pupils create a new adventure for the balloon
  • Perhaps the balloon could be found/given/carried by different people (family members, professions)
  • Or found in different places around the house/garden encouraging the use of different prepositions (under, in, beside)
  • Use to practise colours or transport vocabulary

This collection of e-books aims to support Chinese language learning at all levels.

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Doric Nursery Rhymes for Loons and Quines

Gordon Hay reads fae his book ‘Doric Nursery Rhymes for Loons & Quines’, voted ‘Best Scots Book for Bairns’ at the Scots Language Awards 2022. 

Map of Stories

The website contains stories in Scots and Gaelic from around Scotland and highlights where they come from on an interactive map.

BBC Scotland - Stories in Scots

A series of traditional tales told in Scots language.

Gaelic4Parents

The site contains a collection of stories and songs in Gaelic for primary aged children.

Scots Language Centre

Elizabeth Cordiner has created a package of Scots material which is linked into Curriculum for Excellence areas Health and Well being and Scots Language, along with Teachers’ Notes. These are available on the Scots Language Centre website.

Titles include:

  • The Ewen stories
  • The Meggie stories
  • The Mingins
  • Ups an Doons

TRACS

The site contains story resources in Gaelic and Scots.

Audible Stories

Stick the headphones on and listen to a range of genres; classics, fairy tales or even Harry Potter in a variety of languages.

BSL - Mac, Pip and the Falling Stars

This video story commissioned by the Scottish Book Trust for Deaf Awareness Week 2021 tells the story of Mac and his wee dog Pip who are about to embark on a night time adventure! Share this magical story featuring some key words and phrases in British Sign Language (BSL) with your little ones.

Children's Books Online

A library of children's stories with translations in a variety of languages.

Global Storybooks

A free multilingual literacy resource for children and youth worldwide.

International Children's Digital Library

An online resource containing books in a range of world languages.

Learning Chinese Through Stories

The podcasts teach common Chinese vocabulary and idioms in the context of stories. Available at different levels, the stories have definitions of key words with Pinyin and English translations.

Little Fox Chinese

With songs, stories and games this site is an ideal resource for beginner learners.

Little Red Languages

This site provides a collection of stories, songs and poems for language learning in French, German and Spanish.

MagicBlox

Online books for children with a small selection of language options, mainly Spanish.

Mama Lisa's World

A wide collection of songs, rhymes and traditions across the globe.

Storybooks Canada

This is a free open educational resource which makes 40 African stories available with text and audio in English, French and the most widely spoken immigrant and refugee languages of Canada. 

StoryWeaver

A digital repository of stories for children to enjoy in a wide range of languages.

The Fable Cottage

Bilingual stories for language learners.

The French Experiment

Some well-known children's stories translated into French and spoken by a native French speaker.

The Spanish Experiment

Well-known children's stories translated into Spanish and spoken by a native Spanish speaker.

Unite for Literacy

This collection of children's books is available with English and Spanish narration with some of the titles also narrated in a variety of languages (select under the narration menu).

World Stories

A collection of stories from around the world to listen to or read in a range of languages.

World of Tales

Folk stories and fairy tales for children from all cultures around the world (stories written in English). 

University of Strathclyde Education Scotland British Council Scotland The Scottish Government
SCILT - Scotlands National centre for Languages