Bilingual Parenting presents a wonderful introduction for expecting parents to explore the positives of raising their child bilingual. As a first time mom in a bicultural relationship, I want my children to be raised bilingual, however have been nervous given I only speak English while my husband speaks English and Spanish.

After reading Bilingual Parenting, I feel more empowered to cultivate bilingualism within my home.

Bilingual Parenting presents many anecdotes the author has seen, both within her own family (French/English) or those she has come across – utilizing humorous stories to showcase the importance of early language introduction. Make note that there isn’t much science or research backing the authors claims, as she is pulling from personal experience.

I felt this guide lacked depth and information for the parent who only speaks one language, as the author and her spouse both speak 2 languages fluently. The concept of “one parent, one language” is extremely more difficult when the mother or main caregiver does not speak the minority language (as in my case). I acknowledge that this is a specific request, but I feel this guide could have been improved with more of this perspective to appeal to the American audience.

Thank you NetGalley and Troubador publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The author's personal perspective and successful history of maintaining a bilingual household shines through this book, but unfortunately it does not offer anything new beyond anecdotal evidence of the author's family. I expected more research and information. The advice was quite obvious or focused on proving that bilingualism is good: perhaps I am not a target audience of this book since I've never believed or even heard any negative stereotypes about it and already believed it's good. I paid attention to footnotes and sources, but they seemed to come from very few books and websites, giving a limited perspective. The book is also very short but at the same time I found myself skipping some sections that pertained to the author's personal experience.

Thank you netgalley for the drc.

A short overview on the benefits of raising bilingual children and how to or not to do it.

There any many short antedocs from real people to explain the lessons listed in the book. I found it very compelling and easy to understand how it works in practice, rather than it being a vague theory that I have to imagine on my own.

As someone who is monolingual but had a bilingual partner, this is a concept I’ve considered for some time. I would suggest this to anyone who is considering raising bilingual children, and to do so before having them. But better late than never if you already have them!

I can see myself refering back to this book in the future when I face specific problems and need a little advice of how to approach it.

If you are bilingual, parent a bilingual (or multilingual) child, or have negative perceptions around being bilingual such as firstly, not believing that it is possible, or assuming it equals to a deficit in either or both languages, read this book.

Gentil's book is a combination of scientific findings, anecdotes and essays on bilingualism. The parenting aspect makes this book much needed and important.

Thank you to NetGalley, publishers and Nicky Gentil for the early access edition.

The book Bilingual Parenting by Nicky Gentil is a guide on what to do and not to do when raising a child to be bilingual. Nicky herself has experience after raising her 2 children and interviewing many others. Originally from the UK, Nicky moved to France and became fluent.

I picked this book up because I was curious with what I would find inside. Having been born in Lithuania and moved to the UK at the age of 6. My native language was Lithuanian however, I would no longer call it that and say I am more elementary proficient. I can have a conversation but not very well. So, it was interesting to read some reasons as to why this took place for me and how I could make sure the same doesn't happen to my children if I were to raise them bilingual.

I enjoyed the book and thought it was well written. It wasn't very long and did bring some interesting anecdotes. However, I would say this is much more a memoir and book of anecdotes then a practical guide. I think that as a memoir on bilingual parenting there is a lot that can be taken away but I would expect a guide to come with a lot more research and backing rather than anecdotes.

Overall, this was a good read and I would recommend others to read it who are curious about their own bilingualism or who are considering raising their children as such. Happy to read that there is still hope for my Lithuanian skills!

Edit: have not stopped thinking of this book so have had to come back and give it another star.