Spanglish Book Review! "Mi Casa is My Home" by Laurenne Sala 📚

First of all, a little history. I was a purist when I began my bilingual parenting journey. I was determined my family would speak just one language at a time. All Spanish was ideal, with absolutely no English words thrown in.

I was not a fan of Spanglish books. I thought books should be one language or the other to model "good" language.

My thoughts have changed with time, experience, and real life. My bilingual kids do their best, but they still end up adding in English here or there, or Spanish when they are speaking English.

Fast forward to an EL conference where I learned the term "translanguaging," basically a fancy word for code-switching mid-sentence or between phrases. Spanglish! And it's totally legitimate!

When I wrote "The Secret Door," I had to figure out how to capture a bilingual family in an English-language book. So I ended up writing English with Spanish mixed in. And then the Spanish book with English mixed in. It was much more challenging than I had imagined to make it natural.

I have become fascinated with Spanglish books. Some are awful and painful to read. (I didn't like "Paletero Man," though I wanted to love it. It was just not pleasant to read out loud.)

"Mi Casa is My Home" is a beautifully written book with such natural translanguaging that it rolls off the tongue. Sentences flow between English and Spanish so beautifully and in a way that captures the speech of a bilingual family.

Lucía, the little girl, tells the story in the way she knows best. The freedom to be able to speak to other bilingual people is a beautiful thing... You can let your language take the path of least resistance. She clearly is speaking to a bilingual audience.

She takes us on a tour of her house, with each page evidence of the joy and love she has for her big, Puerto Rican/Spanish family.

I have read this book multiple times with my kids since we checked out out of the library, and probably will be buying it as a gift for some bilingual friends.

Check out this new book. You will love it! 

Get your copy on Amazon!