These are some of our top picks to add to your bookshelves. Best children’s books to get your child started on both English and Malay languages.

1. Bulat dan Haiwan-haiwan (Bulat and Animals)
This is the fourth book in the bilingual Bulat series. It is a simple concept book. Basically, it introduces vocabulary – from colours to numbers, fruits and vegetables, and animals. There are also some repetitive words so children will get used to hearing the same words all the time. Good for beginners.

2. Ally at the Airport (Ally di Lapangan Terbang)
Who doesn’t love going to the airport? For those who have grown up with Ally, the cat, she started with Ally at home, and move on to the park, playground, library, and zoo. These board books are meant for toddlers and nursery children. However, the last two books (Aquarium and Airport) are non-board books. They are hardcovers, meant for growing kids. These bilingual books are a sure way to entice your children to learn both languages.

3. Pengembaraan Tim (Tim’s Adventure)
Another bilingual favourite is Tim’s Adventure, about an adorable-looking turtle hatched in Sister’s Islands Singapore who made his way across the oceans and then find his way back to where he was hatched. Along the way, he met many marine animals, some friendly and some not-so-friendly ones. This is probably the first bilingual book that has interactive features that incorporate a theme song, animation, and even augmented reality. It was one of six books nominated for the Red Dot Book Awards by the International Schools Libraries Network, Singapore. The rest of the nominated books were from the UK, US, and Australia and we couldn’t be any prouder.

4. Siri Burung Kakaktua: Pokok Saga Istimewa
This is a picture book specifically written only in Malay as it teaches our children about the alphabet and the special letter E through a wise cockatoo and the saga tree at Bukit Timah hill. This two-book series also contained interactive features. Each book has two songs, a full animation, and augmented reality and it is meant for beginning readers of Malay. Launched in September 2022, Lagu Huruf E (The Letter E song) has garnered 56,000 views as of the time of this post.

5. Siri Burung Kakaktua: Awan Kecil
The second in the Burung Kakaktua series shows the cockatoo in a housing estate as a little cloud looked over from the sky. Set in the backdrop of Singapore, the little cloud teaches words from letter a to z by looking at its surroundings. The story also depicts the changing weather, and from day to night. With similar interactive features – it has two songs, a full animation, and augmented reality – one of the newly composed songs, “Lihat, Sebut” focuses on Malay phonics and has since garnered 10,000 views.

We hope you enjoy these first recommendations to satiate your children’s reading appetite and increase their vocabulary and appreciation for languages and local stories. Yes, these books are all produced by Singaporean authors and publishers. Tell us what you like about these books. We let you in on more book recommendations soon. Click on the title of these books to get to their pages.

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