Bilingual Bedtime

One story, two languages, and a child who suddenly understands both.

Open this book anywhere and you will find the same moment of a fairy tale twice: classic Italian on the left page, warm modern English on the right. The two pages move together, paragraph by paragraph, with small matching numbers, so you can read a line aloud in one language, cross the spread, and hear the same line in the other. Children love hearing a story twice. That repetition is exactly how a new language settles in.

Ten stories your family already loves

The great classics are here: Cinderella, Puss in Boots, Little Red Riding Hood and the Bremen Town Musicians, alongside shorter treasures that make a perfect one more story before lights out: The Fairies, The Hare and the Hedgehog, The Three Brothers, Doctor Know-All and The Clever Little Shepherd. Seven tales from the Brothers Grimm and three from Charles Perrault, together in one storybook.

Classic Italian, from two beloved translators

The Italian pages carry genuine nineteenth century translations from the public domain: Filippo Paoletti's Grimm and Carlo Collodi's Perrault. Collodi is the author of Pinocchio, and his Italian has been read to children for well over a century. The spelling has been lightly modernized. The storytelling is his own.

The little words underneath

Under every single word sits a tiny helper in the other language. On the Italian page, each Italian word carries a small English gloss. On the English page, each English word carries a small Italian gloss. And here is the trick that makes this book different: wherever the two pages share a word, the glosses reuse the same vocabulary on both sides. One story, one vocabulary, two languages.

Inside you will find

• Ten complete tales in authentic public domain Italian, lightly modernized
• A faithful English mirror telling, written for reading aloud
• Word by word glosses under both texts, sharing one vocabulary
• Matching paragraph numbers, so you never lose your place at bedtime
• Twenty watercolour paintings, an opening and a closing for every tale
• A short, friendly guide for grown ups on how to read a mirror book together