Book excerpt: With colorful, eye-catching illustrations to stimulate imagination and curiosity, My First Bengali (Bangla) Dictionary is specially designed for children ages 5 to 12. It contains more than 1,000 everyday words (from colors, animals, household items, foods and more)--each illustrated and translated into Bengali with accompanying phonetic pronunciation. The illustrations are arranged alphabetically by English so even young readers can easily search for words, and each one is labeled with clear, bold type. Recent studies suggest that children should begin learning a foreign language before age 10 for best results. This dictionary is a fun, engaging way for parents or grandparents to introduce Bengali to young children. Teachers will also find the dictionary useful for students who are learning Bengali or English from Kindergarten and up. Bengali, also known as Bangla, is an official language of Bangladesh and India and is spoken by over 230 million people worldwide. In fact, it is the seventh most spoken language in the world.