Navajo Multimedia Books

07/06/19 Diné College updated their website. I’ve updated the links below and on the resource page. Please update you bookmarks.
03/2021 Adobe Flash no longer exists. To continue using these books go to this site: https://www.itechtics.com/flash-player-alternatives/ and follow the instructions for the program RUFFLE. It works perfectly in my Chrome browser!! 

I’ve found a collection of awesome multimedia books produced by Diné College that is a useful Navajo language resource. The collection has  76 different children’s books divided among 7 proficiency levels. I’ve played around with a few of the books, and I’m finding that there was a lot of work that went into making them. This is evident by the original artwork, glossary, and audio recording that accompany each book. The collection is located here.

To read a book you’ll have to know a few things to navigate. I think I came across this a few months ago, but lost interest because I didn’t take the time to learn how to navigate within a book.

When you select and open a book you first run into an agreement page. Read through it and to agree, like it says, click Aoo’. This means yes. After this you should see an introductory page with the book title, author, and illustrator like the one pictured. You’ll also see a  navigation bar at the bottom; this is what frustrated me before, but now I’ve got it down.

Ałtso – closes the book
Oolye– opens the glossary
Nat’ąą’- takes you back to the previous page
Naas – advances to the next page
Iiniłts’ąą’–  the program will start reading the selected page out loud
T’aała’i – This is page number “one”. When selected it will open a small menu to select a different page number in Navajo.

Here are screenshots from a Level 3 and Level 7 book.

Selecting the Glossary –  Obviously small at Level 3

Level 7 book – Many more sentences

Level 7 Glossary for the same page above

I wish I could highlight the text to make flashcards quicker. Some of the artwork is very well done, I almost wish these were tangible books to gift to others. But what makes this resource so useful is the fact it is online, has audio, has a glossary and is completely free. Thanks Diné College.