This chapter clarifies how English is the most widely studied foreign language in the world according to David Crystal. Since World War II, it has emerged as the dominant language of global commerce and culture. The chapter emphasizes that being fluent in English greatly expands one's reading options. English accounts for 80 percent of the e-book titles available on Amazon.com, 80 percent of academic journals, and more than half of all content on the Internet. The chapter also discusses how several organizations are working to expand multilingual children's literature: the African Storybook Project, Books for Asia, the Global Book Alliance, Nabu.org, Worldreader, and myriad small publishers serving specific language communities. Their programs make clearer than ever before what it means to effectively promote the right to read. This requires the coordinated efforts of the United Nations, national governments, foundations, businesspeople, charities, publishers, authors, and illustrators.
National Governments and the World War