Reading to Elliot en Español

I was thrilled to realize the other day that Elliot can find his nose and his hair when asked where they are in both English and Spanish. At 15 months, he's not really talking...but his level of comprehension in both languages seems to be growing by leaps and bounds.

As a non-native Spanish speaker, I do sometimes worry about having a somewhat limited vocabulary in Spanish and making grammatical errors. Therefore, I find books to be a tremendous resource to supplement our "conversations" in Spanish. Some of our favorite Spanish-language board and picture books include:

• Mi Amor Por Ti/My Love for You: In this adorable little board book, one tiny mouse expresses its love for another through comparisons such as "taller than two giraffes," "longer than five pythons." It's quick, it's cute and it ends with the oh-so-true sentiment that my love for little Elliot is "forever/para siempre." Tim and I like to read this book to Elliot together -- I read the Spanish text while he reads the words in English. And, unlike some bilingual books, the words in both languages work well.

•  Quiero a Mi Mamá Porque/I Love My Mommy Because: Who wouldn't love a book about why a baby loves his/her mommy, especially one illustrated by mother and baby animals? And, as an extra bonus, "the animal behavior pictured in this book has been verified by wildlife biologists" -- or so it notes at the end. Since so many children's books are animal-focused, I have found that my Spanish-language animal vocabulary has grown quite a bit (both animal names and descriptors for animal sounds, e.g., braying)... which is helpful because we go to the zoo a lot!

• Eres Tu Mi Mamá/Are You My Mother? Another "mother" book, this one the bilingual version of the P.D. Eastman classic. We've read this one so many times, that I do it almost as an interpretive play -- bouncing Elliot when the "little egg jumps" and using a very high (and sometimes, quite distressed) voice for the baby bird. 

•  Several "lift-the-flap" books: Kids Elliot's age love the thrill of "lifting the flap" to see what's underneath. We enjoy the classic Karen Katz book "Where's Baby's Belly Button" in its Spanish-language version "Dónde Está El Ombliguito?" And, we now have two of the "Cucú, Te Veo" /Peek-a-book books in Spanish, which Elliot loves because of the adorable illustration style. And, since these books are so simple and straightforward, it would be hard to get the translation wrong.

But, some books definitely do. One of the most notable in our collection is the song-turned-book "head, shoulders, knees and toes," which is translated literally. So, unlike the sing-along English version, the Spanish doesn't rhyme at all and just sounds silly. Likewise, we have translations of several "I love you" books that obviously had a nice rhythm in English, but are just awkward in Spanish. I have found, however, that all of the Dr. Seuss books we've read so far in Spanish have been carefully translated to both rhyme and to maintain the whimsical cadence that characterizes his books -- quite a feat! 

I would like to add more books originally written in Spanish to the mix, but so far, haven't found many that I really like. I do see our Spanish-language library continuing to grow, both for Elliot's benefit and because I get tired of reading the same books over and over and over. So, if you know of any great books in Spanish, please let me know!

This post is part of the November Bilingual Blogging Carnival. If you're interested, check out more great posts here.