Dwyn shopping in Nha Nam.

Finding high-quality books that reflect the people we serve is central to Tandem’s work. Tandem’s Book Selection Committee is charged with sourcing, reviewing, and purchasing books to add to our circulating StoryCycles® collection. I’ve been a member of this committee since my first month at Tandem and it is one of the most fun, interesting parts of my job. I love getting to spend time working with my colleagues on finding the best, most beautiful children’s books to share with the families we serve.

One of the most challenging parts of my role on Tandem’s book selection committee is finding high quality children’s books in languages other than English, Spanish, and Chinese. While we have Spanish and Chinese speaking staff members who have been able to source books in these languages, finding books outside of these main three can be difficult. Vietnamese books are in high demand and sourcing titles that are well translated is both difficult and expensive. It’s an ongoing discussion for our team, and one that is particularly relevant right now as we order new books for ourStoryCycles classrooms.

With that in mind, I volunteered to buy Vietnamese books for StoryCycles during our July break while visiting family in Vietnam. My father has lived in Ho Chi Minh City for more than ten years, so visiting him presented the perfect opportunity to find the books. 

Nguyen Van Binh Street in Ho Chi Minh City

I am not a Vietnamese speaker, outside of a few practical phrases and the ability to count to 100. However, my father’s partner, Tuyet, is a native Vietnamese speaker from the Mekong and was happy to help me find the books Tandem needed. Not only did she review all of the Vietnamese books currently in our collection, but she also found a street in Ho Chi Minh City full of fantastic bookstores. This year, Tandem truly owes her a huge thank you for all her work vetting our collection and helping us get these amazing new Vietnamese books!

We went together to Nguyen Van Binh Street, a tiny walking street right next to Ho Chi Minh City’s central post office and across the street from Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon. To me, this street seemed like heaven. Every single store on the street was either a book store or a cafe nestled inside a bookstore. It’s the perfect place for any bookworm! I brought my Tandem bag to make sure I didn’t buy any books too large to fit into the StoryCycles bag, and we went to work finding the perfect books for our collection.

One of the book displays. Xe Cộ is now in our collection!

The first couple of stores had some options but not many, the books largely targeted at adults. I almost worried we’d be out of luck. But the fourth store we went into, Nha Nam, had a wealth of gorgeous children’s books. I couldn’t believe my luck! Together, Tuyet and I found some beautiful titles, some translated versions of old favorites, and some I’d never seen before. It was hard not to buy every single book we saw! I bought about two-thirds of the books we’d need, then, at Tuyet’s suggestion, paid and left my purchases at Nha Nam to pick up while we scoped out the rest of the street.

While most of the other stores offered books for adults, I did find a set of translated Magic School Bus books (a favorite from my childhood!). We were just about to return to Nha Nam when a group of teenage students from ILA, a well known English language school in Vietnam, stopped me. They were out with their teacher, looking for English speakers to interview for a school project. I was excited to talk to them, especially because I had taught at their school years ago. We chatted for a few minutes, the kids taking turns to ask me what I thought about the nearby church, post office, and what I’d recommend they see in Ho Chi Minh City.

Dwyn and Tuyet after a successful book buying trip!

Tuyet and I returned to Nha Nam and bought the rest of the books I needed and picked up the books from my first purchase. The friendly staff packed everything up for me, threw in a handful of bookmarks, and we were off. It’s no surprise that the manager of the store kept encouraging me to come back more – I bought more than 80 books in one day! 

This, of course, is not a long-term solution for finding children’s books in Vietnamese, let alone the other languages Bay Area families speak. But it is exciting to be able to ensure that this school year, we’ll have especially high-quality children’s books for our Vietnamese families. I’m looking forward to working on solving this problem of access to books in other languages with the rest of the book selection committee. Knowing that our work directly contributes to getting those books into the hands of Bay Area families is something I’m immensely proud of!

Do you have favorite books in Vietnamese, Arabic, Japanese, or other languages? We’d love to hear about them! Comment with your favorites to help us find new titles for our collection.