Diglot Books Wins Best New Product Award at Wales Spring Fair 2012

Feb. 1, 2012 - PRLog -- Diglot Books Wins “Best New Product” Award at Wales Spring Fair 2012

Bilingual Welsh / English ABC Picture Book Recognized for captivating way of teaching the Welsh Alphabet to Children.


Llandudno, Wales – 1st February 2012 – Diglot Books, a leading provider of dual language books for children, announced today it has won the Best New Product  award at the Wales Spring Fair run by the Welsh Arts and Crafts Council. A team of judges from local retailers recognised the company’s Welsh Language Gift Pack for children for their innovative and fun way of introducing young children to both Welsh and English simultaneously.

What makes Diglot’s ABC bilingual alphabet picture books unique is the way in which each letter is represented by a real life picture of an object that starts with the same letter in both languages. This allows children to quickly associate the sound with the shape of the letter eliminating the confusion between the languages. Each picture is accompanied by a simple descriptive sentence in both languages to increase vocabulary and interactivity, as well as an interactive question from the ever present friendly dragon Diglot.

“We’re honoured to be selected the winner of the Best New Product award,” said Alison O’Dornan, CEO of Diglot Books. “We appreciate the recognition by this distinguished group and are particularly flattered with how well our mascot Diglot the Dragon has been received in Wales. We intend to continue developing our range of products to help support children learning the Welsh Language and look forward to returning to the show next year.”

About Diglot Books


Diglot (Dahy-glot)
Adjective:  Bilingual
Noun: A Bilingual book or person
From the Greek diglottos, from di- (two) + -glottos (tongue, language)

Diglot Books began life in 2010 following one of those simple over a coffee conversations that often happens between two friends. Founder Alison O'Dornan was visiting with her friend Wilma vanRiel when Wilma mentioned a small but inspirational idea that she had for a bilingual ABC book for toddlers that only used words that began with the same letter in both languages. The idea stemmed from time spent with her 18 month old daughter Sophie who was trying to get to grips with the alphabet in both her native Dutch and English languages. Whenever Sophie was looking at a book on her own she would often get confused when the picture and letter didn't match the word she thought ofin both languages. For example when letter "D"  was represented by a picture of Duck, which worked in English but not in Dutch where the word "eend" begins with "E".

Alison was so inspired by this simple idea that she did some research to find out if anything like it already existed, and when she found there was nothing out there, she set about finding a way to make the idea into a book.

Fast forward to 2011 and combine that initial concept with  Alison's desire to inspire ordinary parents that is possible to raise their own children to be bilingual with all the cultural, creative and academic benefits that diglotto's brings and Diglot Books Ltd was launched.

Since those humble beginnings of a discussion of an ABC book in Dutch and English around a kitchen table, Diglot has now extended its range to include a range of products in several languages including French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Welsh and Dutch and are continually expanding this list. The free audio files available help parents and children alike to listen to pronunciation and build confidence, the dual language parallel text in the books aids subliminal absorption of the vocabulary, and the ever friendly presence of Diglot the Dragon creates an enjoyable interactive way for children to learn a second language.

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Diglot Books specialise in dual language materials for pre-school children. Young children grasp a new language as easily as their first language; they learn to think in the new language without the need for translation.