Family stories kids ask for again and again. In English and in German.
It usually starts somewhere ordinary. The back seat of the car on a long drive. The reading corner before lights out. A walk that was supposed to be about fresh air. One of my children starts telling a story, and I have learned to do the only thing that matters. I listen.
Read our story
This story was told by Granddad to his grandchildren, a tale he carried for years and shared in his own words. It became our first family book, and it keeps his story alive for every child who reads it. Tommy sails out on his uncle's fishing boat and pulls up something no net was ever meant to catch: a mermaid. What he chooses to do next makes him a hero in his village, but the real reward is the peace of knowing he did the right thing.
My son told me this story at age five, because he loves dinosaurs and he loves his family, so he gave the dinosaur a family too. Giggles eats his stew, brushes his teeth to keep them strong, and goes on adventures with the people he loves. It is daily family life seen entirely through the eyes of a five-year-old, and it shows that even something big and scary-looking can be gentle and full of love.
My daughter told me this entire story in one sitting, at age seven, and would not stop until it was finished. It was inspired by her grandparents' golden retriever, and it goes everywhere a seven-year-old's imagination can reach. Giggles and his family follow a treasure map from a waterfall all the way to Africa, travel through fields of candy, and discover that the greatest treasure of all is alive and has a wagging tail.
This story began when Grandma took the children to meet two real horses called Biscuit and Splash. Before they could ride, they had to learn to care for them first, cleaning stables and filling water troughs, because that is how Grandma raised me too. It is a story about kindness and responsibility, and about three generations of one family who believe the best adventures happen outside.
This story was invented by the children's auntie during a visit to England, after a day at a park fair where my daughter held a real owl. That evening the story grew wings of its own. Fairies wake two children at night and carry them to a magical fairground in the middle of nowhere, with rides, candyfloss, and a tree full of enchanted birds, before tucking them safely back into bed with a promise to watch over them always.
The only true story on our shelf. When Svenja was fifteen, she flew alone from Germany to Utah to spend a school year in America, and every bit of it really happened.
Svenja meets her big host family, makes a friend called Graciela who arrives at the same door with her own suitcase, rides the yellow school bus, and floats in a lake so salty she cannot sink. Some nights she is homesick, and the book says so honestly, because that is part of going far from home. By the last page her heart holds two homes, and it feels just right.
My daughter told this story out loud from start to finish, and she told it the way she speaks, so this is the first book in the collection written in flowing prose instead of rhyme. A family goes camping in the forest, and by midnight there are monsters sniffing the marshmallows, a way out that is not what it seems, and a mysterious black bag that saves the night. Her monsters are defeated by tickling their feet and tying their hairy toes in knots, which tells you everything about how her mind works. Coming soon in English and German.
My son was five when he told me about a gorilla who went looking for bananas and found a tiger asleep in his tree. What followed was a fight neither of them wanted, a nervous monkey determined to stop it, and bananas shared instead of kept. At the end they find a scary black cave and promise each other never to go inside, which is exactly the kind of pact five year olds believe friendship is made of. Coming soon in English and German.
My daughter and my son dreamed this one up together, aged eight and six. There is a cave full of diamonds, a sword and shield made from them, a house with ten bedrooms and a swimming pool, and two dragons, one black as midnight and one white as snow. The line that made me stop writing and look up came from my son: scary things stop being scary once they are your friend. Coming soon in English and German.
This one was told in the car while we queued for the ferry on the way home from England, one line at a time, until the story was done. It has Fishy, Miraka, a crystal cave that crumbles, and a shark who picked entirely the wrong fish to bother. Family stories do not get more word-for-word real than this one. Coming soon in English and German.
Five stories, told by the people we love, on paper you can hold.
Behind every book is the story of how it came to be. I share those stories on TikTok.
@bilingualstorybookland on TikTok
Our books are family picture books for children ages 4 to 8. They suit bilingual families, children learning English or German as a second language, and anyone who loves kids stories that come from real life.
Yes. Each page carries the full story in English and in German, so you can read just one language, or both side by side. Many families read the familiar language first and let the second one grow.
They are. Every book began as a family story told out loud by our children, grandparents or an auntie, and we wrote it down. One of them, A Year Far From Home in Utah, is a true story from start to finish.
No. The English is written as rhyming verses, and the German is its own poem written from scratch by a native speaker, so both languages are fun to read aloud.
All published books are on Amazon in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. Every buy button on this page lets you pick your Amazon store.