Title: Hola! Let's Learn Spanish: Visit New Places and Make New Friends!
Author: Judy Martialay
Genre: Mexico / Foreign Language / Educational / Party
Year Published: 2015
Year Read: 2017
Publisher: PoliglotKidz Press
Source: eARC (Author)
Content Rating: Ages 3+ (Nothing Objectionable)
Buy or Add on: Amazon // Goodreads
I
would like to thank the author Judy Martialay for providing me a copy of this book in
exchange for an honest review.
Now, I have read many children’s books that dealt with teaching
children about foreign languages, but I had never read a children’s book where
a term would be phrased in English and then be translated into Spanish in the
same sentence and author Judy Martialay
has certainly created an intriguing story that combines both Spanish and
English terms in her book “Hola! Let’s
Learn Spanish: Visit New Places and Make New Friends!”
Basically, this book teaches children about Mexico and
its culture and language, which their language is Spanish. There is also a
story woven in this book that stars a small Mexican jumping bean named Panchito
who wanted to find new friends that he could play with and he ends up
journeying through the marketplace and winds up at a piñata party!
What
will Panchito discover at the piñata party?
Read
this book to find out!
Judy Martialay has done an
excellent job at creating a book that would help children understand not only
about the language of Mexico, but about its culture as well and I have always
enjoyed children’s books that try to teach children about foreign cultures and
how to pronounce their languages at the same time. I had a lot of fun in trying to pronounce the
Spanish verses for the English verses, such as “Hola” meaning “hello”
in Spanish and “Los Frijoles” meaning
“beans” in Spanish and I loved the
way that Judy Martialay had the English
verse being spoken first and then the Spanish translation for that verse coming
right after the verse such as this phrase “Look! Miren!” as it helps children see how that English verse is
translated into Spanish. Judy Martialay’s artwork is extremely
cute to look at as the characters are rendered in scratchy and simple outlines
and I enjoyed the images of Panchito himself as he is shown as a jumping bean who
has stick like legs and a small hat that he wears in each panel.
The reason why I gave this book a four-star rating was
because I felt that the pacing was a bit too slow at times and I sort of wished
that the story moved at a faster pace in introducing us to the world of Mexico.
Overall, “Hola! Let's Learn Spanish: Visit New Places and Make New Friends!” is a great book for
children in learning about Mexico and their language Spanish and would be a
great book in helping children understand foreign languages! I would recommend
this book to children ages three and up since there is nothing inappropriate in
this book and the Spanish language is introduced in a way that would be easy for
smaller children to understand.
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