In an article, reporting how the Kyle Public Library in Texas has added a large selection of Spanish and bilingual (Spanish-English) books, Anita Méndez Pérez cites reports on the benefits of reading in their native language for young children and the impact on their second language.

“Literacy skills learned in the native language can transfer to the second language (Denton, et al., 2000);” writes Méndez. “A study published by the Journal of Research in Childhood Education (Hancock, 2002) found that young Spanish-speaking children who were exposed to books in their native language developed stronger pre-literacy skills than Spanish-speaking children who were only exposed to English books.”

Read the complete story here.