Thursday, December 10, 2009

Book Reviews and Discounts!

I love giving my children books for Christmas. They love them, sometimes even more than toys. They also never get bored of them. I think reading a variety of books has increased my girls' Spanish vocabulary more than any other thing. We always have at least 20 books in Spanish checked out from the library. Here are a few places to buy books.

Barefoot Books is having a sale of 30% off and free shipping. This is a great deal! They have a great selection of books in Spanish. My personal favorite is De Paseo por La Selva with the music CD. It would be $7 with free shipping with the discount. It is such an adorable book and song. Another great book I recommend is El Nabo Gigante. I'm definitely taking advantage of this great deal and buying some for my kids for Christmas.

A beautiful book that we gave my siblings for Christmas to read at Nochebuena is The Legend of the Poinsettia. There are many versions, but I do love Tomie de Paola's version. It is not completely in Spanish, but it is great to introduce your children to some cultural traditions in Mexico. There are Spanish words introduced throughout the book. You have to read this precious book at Christmas time!

Language Lizard has a large selection of books in English along with your choice of 40 other languages. They sent me two books to review. Las Navidades de Marek y Alice was a sweet book about two children celebrating a Polish Christmas. It is fun to learn about other cultural traditions especially around Christmas time. I liked the pictures, although a few sentences seemed a little confusing to me. Ricitos de Oro y Los Tres Osos was a cute version of this loved story. The illustrations were adorable.

As a special contest, my mother offers her grandchildren a money prize if they learn every word in the First Thousand Words in Spanish book. They study each page and then have to talk with her over the phone to pass them off. She asks them in Spanish to tell her each word, for example, "¿Cuál animal dice mu?" I have really enjoyed reading this book with my girls. We use the First Thousand Words in Spanish Sticker Book that you can find here. It is only $10 and there are 500 stickers included. The illustrations are adorable and perfect for having a conversation. The girls don't lose interest because they get to take turns find the missing sticker and pasting it on the page. I have increased my vocabulary as well. Do you know how to say tadpoles? I didn't. Usborne books has a great selection of other books in Spanish

I wish I had time to post a few pictures, but things are crazy busy right now!

4 comments:

Adriana said...

Thank you for this list! I think that at last count I have 16 books for the boys for Christmas (en espanol of course). We also have a ridiculous amount of books checked out from the library. I love your mom's contest with the grandkids. Great idea! I DO know how to say tadpole-- I learned from one of Diego's books. :)

Amanda said...

I just learned about UsBourne Books from a friend and am currently hosting an eshow.... I have Soooo many books on my wish list that I can't even narrow it down to a reasonable amount ~lol! I'm hoping LOTS of people order so I can take advantage of the free $$$ towards my purchase so I can get a lot of the things on my list!!! I totally recommend for anyone to check them out :)

Karen said...

Thanks for the list! I'd like to get more books in Spanish for the boys.

MJ said...

very helpful, thanks for the list of books, i like the book of first tousand words in spanish :)

have a good week

MJ