Monday, February 22, 2016

Pato muy hambrienta - A very hungry duck - Kindle Unlimited




Okay, I read this book by using the Kindle Unlimited program (KU) through Amazon. For $9.99 a month I can read as many books as I want on my Kindle and devices that have Kindle apps. You can check out ten books at a time and can exchange them as often or as much as you would like. Also, Amazon has a general fund that they use to pay the authors or publishers so all parties profit.

For now, I only spend money on children's books in Spanish if they are classic fairy tales, such as Peter Pan or Jack and the Beanstalk. However, with the Kindle Unlimited program I can read as many books in Spanish that I can stand.

Pato Muy Hambrienta is a simple book that introduces or reinforces many simple words for pieces of furniture, fruit and animals. The easy sentences and structure will help to build sentence making ability and to learn easy phrases. The repetitive nature of the book will ensure that the reader will take away valuable skills for the future.

It is a cute book for beginning Spanish learners and can be shared with a child learning the language. It is not a bilingual book, but you can easily look up anything you don't know and will not be slowed down too much, as it is a short book. It is a good book for learning and will give beginners a sense of accomplishment for reading a book.

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Agradezco que la lectura de mi blog. Hasta la próxima vez.



Bakari Akil II, Ph.D. is a Professor of Communication and also writes for his blog at Psychology Today. He is also the author of Spanish Conversations: Realistic Conversations to Improve your Spanish and Conversaciones en Inglés: ¡Conversaciones realistas para mejorar tu inglés!

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Easy to learn Spanish Nursery Rhymes - Book: Tortillitas para Mama



This is a really cool book! Many bilingual books for kids go off the rails with the translations, but the Spanish closely mirrors the English. I bought this book to read to my daughter as well as to satisfy my constant quest to find new material.

The rhymes in this book capture the essence of life and the relationships shared between parents and children. Plus, there are also some general rhymes that could easily be applied to regular life. There will not be any Humpty Dumpty type nursery rhymes here. "Not that there is anything wrong with that!" - Seinfeld

In all, there are a total of 16 nursery rhymes and they are really sweet. I read this book in 20 minutes. Depending upon your level, it will probably not take you that long. However, I tried to memorize some of the nursery rhymes, which slowed me down a bit.

It is a good thing I read it as soon as I bought it, because when my daughter saw it she wanted me to read it right away. (I always read books first before reading to her because I do not want to have to stumble over the Spanish or skip over words I do not know.)

Also, the illustrations (by Barbara Cooney) are very well done and convey a sense of culture. I would recommend this book for any level of learner.

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Este libro es un excelente manera para practicar su español. También se proporcionará rimas fáciles de aprender.


Bakari Akil II, Ph.D. is a Professor of Communication and also writes for his blog at Psychology Today. He is also the author of Spanish Conversations: Realistic Conversations to Improve your Spanish and Conversaciones en Inglés: ¡Conversaciones realistas para mejorar tu inglés!