I just ran across the International Children’s Digital Library, whose lofty mission is “to support the world’s children in becoming effective members of the global community.” Who can be against that?

The site lists books from all over the world, in many languages. Some of the books reside in digital form on the website, while with others you might be directed to a list of libraries where the not-so-digital copies can be found.

Many of the books are available in more than one language, and they are working on more translations. In fact, even if you are monolingual, you can help:

You can indicate if a particular sentence sounds right to you as a native speaker. If it does not, you can suggest a better word flow. Interesting concept! Though, if something is mistranslated to begin with, the best outcome would be a well-worded mistranslation.

At any rate, it’s a great cause, and a wonderful resource for children of the world and for those of us who are still children at heart.