libros

For both kids and adults learning Spanish, children's books are a great way to practice reading in Spanish. While many language-learners get frustrated with texts that are beyond their ability, kid's books offer a colorful, enjoyable way to improve your Spanish reading skill. The books recommended below are translations of books you have either read or been read to as a child. I recommend practicing reading aloud to improve your pronunciation.

Children's Books for Beginners

Buenas Noches Luna (Goodnight Moon)

Stories of Southern Spain

Several years back I purchased this book before heading to Andalucia, one of my favorite regions of Spain. The memoir is clever, and really captures the feeling of Andalucia, with its dry hilly terrain, lemon and olive trees, and tranquilo people.

The book is written by a Chris Stewart, a British expat, who along with his wife retires and moves to a small town in Andalucia. The couple buys a farm with rugged accommodations, and try their luck at settling into their new life. With typically British humor and sarcasm, the story is a pleasure and a great accompaniment to your next Spanish trip.

Speaking Argentine Spanish

Most visitors to Argentina quickly notice a large part of the Argentine style of communication relies heavily on gestos (gestures). Certainly originating partially due to the prolific Italian population, Argentine gestures have taken on a life of their own and often mean different things than their Italian counterparts.

Sin Palabras (Speechless) is a bilingual dictionary of Argentine gestures, explaining how they are made, how offensive they are, and vocabulary around the gesture.

For example, a gesture where you bring your 5 fingers to meet and quickly and closely open and close them is a gesture for being really scared.

This teaching manual by Paul Lindsay is a wonderful resource not only for people interested in teaching English worldwide, but also people teaching in the US. It's an easy to read step-by-step guide for new language teachers, but I imagine it could be useful for seasoned teachers as well. The content of most Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) courses is covered in this book. So many language books are overly theoretical and academic while Teaching English Worldwide is extremely practical in teaching how to be a language teacher.

Another book about people who love books, like The House of Paper, The Shadow of the Wind combines mystery and intrigue against an interesting historic backdrop in this bestselling Spanish novel by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.

I've recently promised myself to stop buying books, even though perusing the shelves of my favorite bookstores is a favorite pastime now bordering a guilty pleasure. I couldn't resist purchasing when I ran across Carlos María Domínguez's short book, the house of paper. It's only fitting that the story is about book lovers, and just so happens to have a Latin American twist.

As readers, we spy on our friends' libraries, if only as a pastime. Occasionally we hope to find a book we want to read but do not have, or to find out what the animal opposite us has devoured. And at home, we leave a colleague sitting in the living room, and return to find him standing there, without fail, sniffing at our books.
-from the house of paper

A plane wreck in the middle of the Andes in the 1970s. Stranded survivors from a Uruguayan rugby team. Resorting to cannibalism to avoid starvation.

Sound familiar? Likely: the story was originally told in the bestselling book Alive, which was later made into a movie.

In her introduction to The Heart that Bleeds, Alma Guillermoprieto encapsulates my love of Latin America: it's chaotic, often corrupt, and has one of the biggest problem

Written by Franklin Foer, an American journalist with a passion for soccer, How Soccer Explains the World is a fascinating political view into the world's game: soccer (let's be real....football). He examines soccer clubs in a living societal and political perspective, and discusses what their players, fans, and owners say about their society. From AC Milan, to Serbia's Red Star Belgrade, the book takes you into the game and further still, into the club's society, history, and its passions.