How it all began...

When my daughter Clara was born, I knew one thing with absolute certainty: she would grow up speaking Portuguese, just like my husband and I. Not only because it’s our language, but because language is how she would know her grandparents, feel at home in Portugal, and carry a piece of her heritage with her wherever she goes.

But finding Portuguese children’s books in the UK turned out to be far harder than I ever expected, it was something I had never really considered that those options simply weren’t available here, and I often wondered how many other families were struggling in the same way.

What should have been a simple, joyful experience, choosing a bedtime story in our native tongue, became a cycle of searching online, coming up empty, and eventually making trips back and forth to Portugal just to fill her bookshelf with books and toys she would quickly grow out of.

No child should grow up without stories in the language that connects them to their family, culture, and home, and every child deserves to see their language and identity reflected on their bookshelf, wherever they are in the world.

I was on maternity leave, trying to navigate motherhood and doing what so many bilingual parents across the UK quietly do — wondering how to keep a language alive.

That’s when Clara’s Little Library came to life. Not as some grand business plan, but as a heartfelt answer to a problem I knew other families were facing too.

Whether you’re Arabic-speaking and want your child to stay connected to their roots, Portuguese and hoping your little one can chat freely with their avós, or from any background where your mother tongue deserves a shelf of its own — Clara’s Little Library welcomes you.