La Autora
About Barbara Zurer Pearson
"After a lifetime studying how children grow up in two languages, I wanted to give something back to the children themselves."
Barbara Zurer Pearson is a researcher, author, and longtime voice in the field of bilingualism. For more than 35 years her work — at the University of Miami, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and in collaboration with educators and families around the world — has helped shape how we understand children who live, learn, and love in more than one language.
She is the author of Raising a Bilingual Child (Random House / Living Language), a guide that has accompanied thousands of families on their bilingual journey. Her academic writing has appeared in journals on language acquisition, assessment, and bilingual development, and she has spent years translating research into tools teachers and parents can actually use.
Why a children's book — and why now
TWO Children Share TWO Languages is the natural next chapter of that work. After years of speaking to parents, teachers, and researchers, Barbara wanted to let the children at the center of it all speak for themselves — the bilingual child who sometimes feels caught between two worlds, and the friend beside them. It just took one bilingual child to help build a bridge.
The story of Diana and Tony grew out of decades of listening to bilingual families. It is not a brand or a campaign. It is a small, warm extension of a much longer mission: helping children see their two languages as a gift, not a burden.
Selected work
- Raising a Bilingual Child — a practical guide for families raising children in more than one language.
- Nurturing Very Young Children Who Experience More Than One Language (WestEd) — a resource for early-childhood educators, eventually published by WestEd.
- Research on bilingual vocabulary development, language assessment, and heritage-language learners.
- Talks, workshops, and collaborations with schools, libraries, and bilingual education programs.
- TWO Children Share TWO Languages — her first picture book, written for the children her research has always been about.
A note from Barbara
"Two languages don't divide a child — they double what a child can give to the world. I hope Diana and Tony's friendship helps young readers, and the grown-ups who love them, feel that truth."