Yoshito Darmon-Shimamori is the founder of Library 4 Multilinguals, an author dedicated to empowering multilingual and multicultural children, and the host and organizer of the annual online conference, the Grand Multiliteracy Event. Drawing on his own bilingual upbringing, over 14 years of classroom experience, and his everyday life as a parent raising multiliterate children, he supports families and educators to nurture confident identities across languages and cultures. Yoshito has published four books designed to help young people grow up multilingual, multicultural, and multiliterate through stories and tools that are engaging, practical, and joyful. His work champions the idea that every language a child speaks is a strength, and he shares real life approaches for helping children read, write, and think across languages so that literacy becomes a bridge between home, school, and community. In this episode, Yoshito shares how his own experiences with bilingualism, literacy, and identity shaped his work supporting multilingual families and educators. Together, the conversation explores why multiliteracy matters beyond oral language development, how families can make reading and writing meaningful, and how motivation, joy, and purposeful routines help children sustain their languages over time. Key Takeaways: Literacy can deeply shape how multilingual children see themselves and their identities. Children often feel a stronger sense of belonging when they can read and write in their languages as well as speak them. Motivation plays a critical role in multiliteracy development. Children are more likely to persist when literacy activities feel meaningful, enjoyable, and connected to their lives. Parents and educators must often create motivation for home language literacy intentionally. Unlike school language literacy, home language literacy may require purposeful opportunities and encouragement. Timestamps: (00:00) Welcome to Literacy Across Languages! (02:05) Meet Yoshito Darmon-Shimamori (07:12) Raising Multilingual, Multicultural, and Multiliterate Children (11:34) The Importance of Literacy Across Languages (13:19) Literacy Routines for Multilingual Families (19:07) Nurturing Multiliteracies in Young Children (22:16) Motivational Changes as Multilingual Children Grow Up (24:07) In Search of Lost Words, an Interactive Multilingual Graphic Novel (26:02) Finding Books in Multiple Languages (28:53) Common Challenges Raising Multiliterate Children (32:02) The Grand Multi-Literacy Event, a Free Resource for Educators and Families (36:23) Multiliteracy as a Bridge Between Cultures (38:18) Takeaways for Teaching Episode Resources: Explore Yoshito’s books and resources for multilingual literacy, including The Parent’s Guide to Raising Multi-Literate Children, at Library 4 Multilinguals. Watch Yoshito’s video interviews with language and literacy experts as part of his annual Grand Multi-Literacy Event. Explore dual language children’s books through BookaBooka’s Digital Library. Stay Connected: Visit us at literacyacrosslanguages.com. Email us with questions or episode suggestions at literacyacrosslanguages@gmail.com. Follow Mary and Katherine on LinkedIn. Like, subscribe, and share this episode with fellow educators, or share a review to help others find us! Keywords: multiliteracy, multilingual learners, multilingualism, bilingualism, literacy development, home language literacy, multilingual families, reading motivation, writing motivation, language identity, cultural identity, family literacy, literacy routines, multilingual children, bilingual children, reading across languages, multilingual education, language learning, literacy instruction, graphic novels, comics, manga, literacy and identity, joyful learning, literacy games, heritage languages, language maintenance, multilingual parenting, literacy engagement, culturally sustaining practices
