Audrey Kratovil, Españolita sobre la marcha 3/11/16
Designed to introduce children between the ages of six and 11 to the Spanish language and Hispanic culture, this book would make a great addition to your home library. Here’s what I love about it:
- Child-focused and friendly – Although it’s meant to teach children basic Spanish words, phrases, and cultural knowledge, it’s written in a way that you, the parent, could simply give it to your child to read on her own. There are colorful illustrations, craft ideas, and a fun story of cultural exploration and adventure (meet Pete the Pilot and Panchito!).
- Designed for the non-native speaker of Spanish – I can already think of several non-native Spanish-speaking family friends of mine who I’d love to pass this book on to, families that are eager to expose their children to introductory Spanish. I would feel totally comfortable giving this book to these parents (who don’t speak the language themselves) because it presents the language in a natural and non-threatening way. For example, the story about Pete the Pilot and Panchito is written in 90% English with one or two Spanish words sprinkled throughout each paragraph.
- Culturally sensitive – It’s clear that Judy took her time to research México, the culture highlighted in the book. There is a section entitled Rincón Cultural, in which she explains in clear, child-friendly language the type of Spanish used, typical food, customs, and celebrations.
Format: Paperback Five Stars: Rich in Spanish Exposure w/Free Online Audio Stream
Review by Maura Ann Rubies, Amazon Top 500 Reviewer Vine Voice
This children's paperback sends you on a flight with Pete the Pilot as he takes his magic plane to Mexico. It opens with a fun story about Panchito--a Mexican jumping bean. You follow him on a brief adventure from his field, through market, to fiesta. Along the way, you meet people and experience new things while learning beginning Spanish words and phrases.
The drawings are simple yet colorful with a few color photographs included. The font is nice and large, with the story being bigger in size than the rest of the book. It's all very comfortable on the eyes, especially since EVERY Spanish word appears in bold.
One of my favorite aspects of the book, is that you can easily stream the audio version for free online at the website (provided in blue on the back of the title page). The author Judy Martialay narrates (with native speaker, Maria Fernanda Pardo who says the Spanish words/phrases). It's a must-have for learning the pronunciations. Play this for bedtime, bath time and/or mealtime to get as much exposure to the language as possible.
"UNA MASCARA/A Mask" is a craft project project with templates for making both male and female masks to decorate with beans. I love that there are photographs of completed samples. This inspires children to want to make one (or more) of their very own. You could then use these (or simple puppets made of popsicle sticks or paper bags...) to act out the characters as you reread the book. Note: An actual skit (Where is Panchito?) is located in the following chapter.
"TE TOCA A TI: It's Your Turn" is a chapter that provides activities to enable you to work with the Spanish words/phrases found in the story while adding many more into the "mix." You'll practice introductions, choose responses, identify items, place nouns in locations, hunt for specific people/things listed in Spanish, perform a skit and study expressions...
In "RINCON CULTURAL/Culture Corner," you learn some aspects of Spanish culture, including practices that inspired this story, like a song that is sung when trying to break a piñata and the mystery behind what a "jumping bean" actually is!
At the end of the book, you'll find "PALABRAS/Words" containing all the Spanish words organized by which section they were first introduced.
This is an excellent book that demands a sequel--you can't help but learn some Spanish from this rich experience.
*Complimentary paperback provided by the author for review purposes.
Midwest Book Review, Children’s Bookwatch, April 2016
"HOLA! Let's Learn Spanish Visit New Places and Make New Friends!" introduces children ages 6 through 10 to the Spanish language and provides an enjoyable experience learning the language as well as to teach them a useful skill. "HOLA! Let's Learn Spanish" begins with an introduction, where Pete the Pilot invites children aboard his magic plane for an imaginary trip to Mexico. On board, children are given some basic words and expressions to learn. It is thoroughly 'user friendly' in content, organization and presentation, making it especially useful for parents who are home schooling their children, as well as an ideal language studies elementary school classroom curriculum text. Very highly recommended for school and community library Spanish Language Studies instructional reference collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "HOLA! Let's Learn Spanish" is also available in a Kindle edition ($7.99).
Midwest Book Review, Children’s Bookwatch, May 2016
"Hola! Let's Learn Spanish" is a fun introduction to the joy of learning to speak a new language, with the assistance of Pete the Pilot and Panchito, a Mexican jumping bean. Pete the Pilot greets children with his plane and explains his job is to fly kids around the world to visit new places and make new friends. Today, Pete is taking his plane to Mexico to visit a sunny bean field. Pete starts with a list of simple expressions in English and Spanish and the children are off. What follows is a lovely story about a wandering jumping bean, written in English but embedded with expressions in Spanish, which are printed in bold. Comic, colored illustrations bedazzle the tale, and in the end the children participate in a birthday party or fiesta with a pinata full of caramelos to be broken and shared. What happens when the pinata is finally broken is a surprise for all (Que sorpresa!). The story of the jumping bean in the pinata ends with some added ideas for increasing Spanish fluency. In "Te toca a ti (It's Your Turn), kids are encouraged to act out a skit with friends, with lost of Spanish vocabulary in a treasure hunt, at the supermarket, and the Expresion diaria, list of daily expressions. A section titled Rincon cultural, or Culture Corner teaches about varieties of frijoles, counting in Spanish, pinatas, and inspires with a song, la cancion, about breaking the pinata, Dale, Dale, Dale. Next a chapter project of making a mask (una mascara) decorated with beans extends the exciting journey to Mexico. Finally a list of Palabras, or vocabulary words in Spanish and English lists the words that were introduced in the book, organized by chapter. "Hola! Let's Learn Spanish" is a creative, appealing invitation to explore the world of fiestas, frijoles, and caramelos awaiting travelers to Mexico.
