Review: "Raising Bilingual Bambini" by Eric Dregni

Raising Bilingual Bambini by Eric Dregni
Published October 2026 via University of Minnesota Press
★★★★

Having lived in Italy and Norway as adults, Dregni and his wife were determined that their own children would be bilingual by design rather than only starting to learn a language as a teenager or older. The plan was simple: Dregni's wife, Katy, would speak to them in English, while Dregni would speak to them in Italian. And somehow, this works.

Kids' brains are so much more flexible and so much more receptive to new language, but gosh, I love the way kids' brains work:

At first, my mother wants to give away the secret to Eilif that I do indeed speak English. But she finally goes along with the ruse, explaining to Eilif, "Your papà needs some English lessons from his grandmother too. We'll help him out."

The irony is that Eilif hears me speaking English all the time to Katy and everyone else. Directly to him, though, I only speak Italian. Somehow, he accepts this disconnect. (loc. 126*)

At some point they must have figured it out for real, of course, but it sounds like Dregni and his wife really committed, as he describes multiple instances of the kids calling him out for speaking English to them—as in, that was rare enough that they noticed.

A lot of the book ends up being less about raising bilingual kids and more just about raising kids, and all the chaos and cuteness that brings. The "moving to Italy" part of things is actually only three months, which is too bad—I mean, I can't fault Dregni and his wife for that! Moving abroad is an enormous commitment, not to mention a logistical nightmare with kids; it's just that as much as I love a travel memoir, I even more love a relocation memoir. Ah well. It's fun and fast-paced, though. 3.5 stars for me; I'm rounding up because I read it at just the right time for this sort of book (heavy on the lighthearted anecdotes), though in a different mood or a different week I might not have gotten so much out of this. (Recommended to people wondering whether they should pursue parenthood, though; even as someone who does not have kids I think it captures the chaos well.)

As for what Dregni's kids did with that hard-won (hard for Dregni and his wife, that is) Italian: Well, you'll have to read the book to find out!

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.