Friday, 4 September 2026

World Kid Lit Month 2026: Explorer Challenger: 0-6: Bilingual Picture Book

  

Kende! Kende! Kende!

Written by Kirsten Cappy and Yaya Gentille.

Illustrated by Rahana Dariah.

Child's Play Inc., 2024.

Text in English and French and some words in Lingala. Picture book.

A multilingual story of love and learning, joy and journey. Inspired by the families throughout Central Africa who are forced to leave their homes, this is an honest but hopeful own-voice narrative about displacement, migration, and finding a new home. Having fled their village as conflict approaches, Mamá, Papá, Lolie, and Nico live in a refugee camp until they are chosen for resettlement in North America. Their new city is a go, go, go of new challenges, but also a return to love and learning, joy and journey. A text woven from three languages (English, French and words in Lingala) celebrates multilingual speakers and the resilience of refugees.

Journeys told through the number of wheels on vehicles. The things that stand out as different, including women driving and doing physical activities.

The first language is French while in Africa, then swaps to English when the family is resettled. The Lingala words are in bold and in capitals, with script similar to handwriting.

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