Our Company

Woman-Owned Small Business

Language Lizard is a woman-owned independent publisher and bookseller that offers beautifully illustrated fiction and non-fiction bilingual books in over 60 languages. We work closely with schools, libraries, families, and charitable organizations to help select the best picture books to support language learners of all ages and levels.

Bilingual Resources for Language Learners

Readers can find a wide selection of multicultural books and interactive “talking” books in common languages such as Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish, and less common languages such as Dari, Hmong, Pashto, Somali, and Ukrainian. All dual-language picture books have English and another language on the page, so the same titles can be used by English-speaking educators and ESL families alike, strengthening the parent-home connection.

Supporting Multicultural Education

To make ordering easy, customers can choose from an extensive selection of book sets in various languages and levels to suit every classroom or library need. We also offer multicultural posters and free teaching resources to help educators build community in diverse classrooms.

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Our Story

As a multilingual, first-generation American who worked in the US and Asia, Anneke Vanmarcke Forzani was inspired to share her love of diverse cultures and languages while supporting literacy among bilingual families. In 2005 she founded Language Lizard to provide “mirror and window” bilingual books in which children could see themselves reflected in the stories and learn about the wider community. She works with a team of similarly minded colleagues who aim to provide the best bilingual books and resources to inspire and educate language learners, support parental involvement in education, and make newcomers feel welcome.

Anneke is the author of the children's books Happy After All, Who Are We?, The Three Little Howlers, The Three Little Sun Bears, With Flying Colors: Color Idioms, and the teacher resource manual Building Bridges with Bilingual Books and Multicultural Resources.

Charitable Organizations Who Love Our Books