Spanish Books Books

I have read the book, On The Banks of the Amazon, to my grandchildren, who are more than facinated with the pictures. The story holds the interest of even the smallest child, all the way to the end. And what a nice surprise at the end!

The text and pictures compliment each other well. This book would be an asset to classrooms and libraries, especially since it is bilingual. It can be enjoyed by children of many ages.

Mrs. Allen has done a wonderful job showing the amazing sites of the Amazon along with keeping the reader on their toes as the hunter looks for exotic things. I recommend this book to all children, as well as educators. It would be a wonderful resource in a rainforest unit.

Written in alternating English & Spanish, ON THE BANKS OF THE AMAZON/EN LAS ORILLAS DEL AMAZONAS will take you & your children into the rainforest of South America where glorious animals of all different shapes & sizes will entrance you.

Great illustrations by Elizabeth Driessen -- energetic, colorful & mesmerizing.

Rebeccasreads highly recommends this & any book published by Raven Tree Press for lively bilingual stories about life on Mother Earth.

"On the Banks of the Amazon" takes the reader out for a day with two photographers as they travel along the edge of the Amazon River. They encounter howler monkeys, poison dart frogs, an anaconda, parrots, caiman and other animals. Detailed full-page illustrations keep a child's interest well and support the reading material. It is a well-done bilingual book written in English and Spanish for children about seven to ten years old. "On the Banks of the Amazon" is a recommended children's book.

The 3rd edition includes a CD Rom disk (instead of cassette tapes-2nd edition) and a section of situations for oral expression and some oral or writing activities. This is an excellent text for adult learners of Spanish.

We used this in all three levels of our class it it is a great book.

"Open Door to Spanish" is a good textbook for beginners, and is especially useful if your Spanish class is using it. If you buy a used copy, make sure it has the CD because it's a great way to check your pronunciation. The course covers Latin American Spanish and culture, not the accent from Spain. Overall, I was very pleased with this product.

This book starts from the very basics, but from the beginning you can use the language acquired. Great for adults. Develops all four skills, listening, reading, writing and speaking.

la historia te cautiva de principio a fin, no tienes idea de lo que va a pasar... he leído este libro dos veces (años de por medio) y el final sigue haciéndome llorar.

This book is an amazing experience. The way Og Mandino tells the story makes you believe you are part of it. This book is a most not only for christians, but for anyone who like novels.

Este libro es sencillamente otra obra maestra de Og Mandino, lo recibi como regalo y realmente me encanto. Desde principio a fin te transporta a la epoca despues de que murio Jesucristo y puedes sentir cada aspecto de su vida y su traicion. Lo recomiendo 100% y aunque tuve que dejarlo en mi pais, lo voy a comprar nuevamente para tenerlo en mi coleccion personal.

Og Mandino is one of the best writers that I have known, he is a great writer, and this book is one of the best books that he wrote.

This is an excellent reference tool for people that really want to write Spanish properly.

This book painstakingly brings forth the spelling rules of Spanish grouped by letters. I liked that each lesson had exercises with answers for self-checks. I would recommend this book if you wanted to learn la ortografia well.

Aunque soy completamente bilingue (espanol e ingles) siempre me gusta estar al dia con los cambios en mi idioma y es por eso que compre este libro; tambien porque quiero someterme al examen de traductor-interprete para la Asociacion Americana de Traductores-Interpretes. Es por esta razon que estoy leyendo y practicando la ortografia, al igual que la gramatica. Espero estar lista en unos tres meses mas.

El libro en cuestion esta muy bueno, me hace recordar mucho mis dias de estudiante y a mi profesor que con disciplina llena de carino nos inculcaba las reglas de ortografia y gramatica hasta que todas las de mi clase no titubeabamos o nos equivocabamos al pasar a la pizarra a escribir los ejercicios. Tiene los cambios que ha sufrido el idioma espanol. Para mi no es aprendizaje sino practica y recordatorio; yo lo recomiendo para aquellos que tienen serio interes en mejorar o aprender ortografia en espanol.

I use this book in High School with my students. User friendly with answer in the back.

One cannot improve upon the remarks fore-mentioned of George Bernard Shaw's. Long before public figures of no talent were thrust upon us, literate minds instead of marketeers gathered around the chosen few as johnny-come-latelys and would rarely disappoint. This is a thrilling,gripping read.Style,tact and endless grace in words for a tragic,painful public artist run throughout this personal account.Much can be gained from savoring this moment in time if one aspires celebrity and fame and wants to avoid its dizzying pitfalls.

this book is a work of art and is the primary source of all the biographies of Wilde. I particularly liked the last part of the book where Harris debates Wilde about male to male love vs. male to female love.Harris is plainly not intimidated by Wilde's witticism's and keeps to a serious vein without being rankled or becoming victimized by Wilde's ability to trivialize subjects with a veneer of parody. Among more of Harris insights is the statement that Bosie,(Wilde's "lover") and Bosie's father the Marquiss of Quennsbury are really 2 opposite ends of the same log.Harris biography seems more like a piece of literature and the life of Wilde,could even Dickens have thought up such a character as Oscar Wilde,I know Poe did!!

I picked this book up in a used book store for [money] more than when it was purchased new in 1960. The pages literally crumbled as I turned them, but I couldn't put the book down. I was enthralled with the life of Oscar Wilde. Now, this biography isn't one written years after the subject's death from scraps of information. No. This is written by a very close friend of Wilde's, Frank Harris. In being written by someone of such closeness, it lends credence to the harsh words the author had to say of Wilde. Harris calls him lazy and slothenly. Of course, Wilde caused quite a sensation in his time. He was imprisoned under other pretenses, but mainly because he was a homosexual in a time period when this was not acceptable. Oscar was one who did not care what others thought of him. He was determined to live a life of pleasure and to make money doing things that he liked: writing and speaking. However, he did a great deal of leaching off of others. There's no denying Wilde's genius. I have yet to read any of his works except for a short essay entitled "The Soul of Man Under Socialism." To me, the thoughts seemed profound. But Harris says that Oscar never said or wrote anything original; he merely took other people's thoughts, meshed them together, and said them in a more profound way. This is a biography that reads like a fine story. Harris is a great writer and has more first-hand knowledge of his subject than any other biographer that I've read. I'd reccomend this book to others without reservation.

"The best life of Oscar Wilde", said George Bernard Shaw after reading this book. I cannot but agree with him utterly. No unnecesary data is wasted, no long reflexions bore us. It's just an Oscar's very close friend telling us with great elegance and delicacy the story of one he has admired and loved so much, but without fear of saying the truth. Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas. Of course, the reader has to know Mr Harris is the true "lead actor" in the story he's telling us, always supporting the Truth and the Right. But one can easily forgive him for that in reward for the great moments un Oscar's life he's saved from oblivion and darkness. A wonderful work of art itself, this biography must be read by every admirer of that Prince of Charm Oscar Wilde was. X. Careaga

I recommend My Safety Plan to teachers, guidance counselors, social workers, psychologists, and anyone else who is involved with children. They should read this book to children, and encourage them to respond to the story. Asking children open-ended questions, such as, what the story reminds them of, provides an opportunity for children to share their experiences without feeling threatened. In this way, valuable information may be obtained.

Children learn about the world as they are exposed to new experiences. When they are introduced to new ideas, this increases their choices in life. I believe that My Safety Plan is a vehicle, by which many children, who are victims of domestic violence, may be able to develop a more conscious awareness of their circumstances. It can help them to realize that others are having similar experiences, and that assistance is available. This book exposes children to the idea that they can be proactive by creating a safety plan. This may help them feel that they have more control, and not feel so powerless.

I find this book to be a loving testament of how to survive the effects of a wound with which many of us have to live. This book is a tool/guide to help victims of domestic violence. It's written in English and Spanish, attempting to assist as many people as possible. This book is a treasure for family members, social workers, family psychologists who want to help themselves or those they love survive domestic violence in the least harmful way. The illustrations speak for themselves and through them, children in such families can identify the situation they are in. "Our Safety Plan" should be in personal and public libraries.

The Safety Plan provides the reader with basic but critical information for both former family victims and families at risk of Domestic Violence and Alcohol Abuse.
These easy-to-follow guidelines make the book accessible to even young readers right from the onset of an abusive encounter. This strategy enhances the safety of battered families in the community.

The services provided for these innocent victims are vital but the actions taken to stop future violence against them are equally important. Hence the uniqueness of The Safety Plan. By following Ms. Luna's critical steps, future violence will be stopped.

The author cleverly designed the book's cover to look like a children's story instead of a 'weapon' in order to distract the abuser from any interest in the book and thereby avoid any possible confrontation with victimized families.

By purchasing The Safety Plan, you are supporting Domestic Violence and Alcohol Abuse cause because all proceeds go directly to this worthy organization.

Tolstoy wrote, "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Unfortunately, there are countless unhappy familes today that can trace their plight to two basic sources: domestic violence and alcohol. The victims are many, but children are the ones most affected: torn by feelings of confusion, fear, guilt and hopelessness. Our Safety Plan directly addresses the painful circumstances and emotions of children in troubled households. The book moves beyond understanding these feelings; it prescribes a program of action-- hence the "Safety Plan."

Our Safety Plan is a book that can make a real difference in the lives of children everywhere.

Hey, i'm looking for some contact with Fernando del Paso, 'cos i wonder if he could give us a speech, or something in the Medicine School at Cuernavaca, Mexico, may you please helpe me?

Palinuro of Mexico is a long surreal voyage throughout everything, full of obscure refrences, and quotations, Palinuro takes you on a trip were Mexico and all of its small surrealistic features come to light, were the abnormal is the commonplace and were Palinuro sets out on a journey of self-universal-discovery. Once you have read it you will be the same

Fernando del Paso's Palinuro of Mexico describes a universe in which all things gravitate between the poles of entropy and love; the entropy of history, specifically Mexican history, the entropy of science, specifically medicine, the entropy of capitalism by way of advertising; and the chaotic love of knowledge for its own sake, the forbidden love of body parts, the sometimes obstreperous love of objects, the naive, boisterous love of students, and, mostly, the achingly pure and tellingly damned love between Palinuro and his cousin, Estefania. It is impossible to compress del Paso's work into an easy synopsis; the universe it describes is the universe of Palinuro's own fantastical consciousness. Read it for the meditations of myth and history; read it for the bawdy comedy; read it for the "Shakespearean invention" (and plagiarism); read it for the sheer delirious luminous perverse willful drunkenness with words which del Paso effortlessly spins into dadaesque flesh. This is heady stuff, insanely readable, artfully compelling and damnably entertaining. Drink it deep.

so you think 100 years of solitude was the ultimate latinamerican novel? Not at all .Very well misbegotten, Palinuro de México has remained for a long time in the dark, almost surrepticiously. This is a very "natural" combo of baroque, enciclopedia and just mad characters . Of course it is political, but it is also very funny, almost overwhelmingly so. If you are looking for a taste of surrealism, a little of violence (just a little),a beguiling antihero (who happens to be a medical student and a"nice" member of mexican society) and anything else from ridiculous advertisements to a wonderful reflection on death -a-la-mexicana- involving bones and dead bodies(what do you know!) Palinuro of México is a must read for everyone who wants to taste life at its full , in all its fleshliness and with mundane curiosity, do drink it slowly for this is a book that really gets through you,it is a climax, sort of speak. And yes, it happens to be more compelling and more refined than any of Isabel Allende's novels.

Clarice Lispector combines philosophy, autobiography and sociology when whe writes her turning around books. They are short, compact, evocative. They challenge old concepts of what makes fiction/reality.

I know that "human gender" sounds weird in English.I'm trying to persuade you to see the H. and the G., now invert it as it would be in Portuguese G.H. I also know that the word "Gospel" does not have the double "entendre" that "passion" evokes in Portuguese. If you read the King James version of the Bible, you may find "The Passion according to Mark, Luke, Matthew..." If I mention these aspects of the title is because this book should be read with a spiritual approach of some sort. Clarice uses language in the most unorthodox manner, a stylistic trait that the translator unfortunately neglects. He actually tries to "conform" to a more mainstream presentation of the text so the average reader understands it. He way didn't get it. Two thumbs down for him. In spite of that, Clarice's supernatural ability to pierce the soul comes across intensely whenever her fluid words challenge our preconceived, static understanding of what things mean. Biblical allusions (both in the Jewish and Christian sense, mixed with Eastern and Western mistical traditions can be subtly and overtly detected in G.H.'s (Genero Humano, Human Kind)inward exploration and personal revelations. The text is fluid and, as such, serves as a changing mirror to the reader, that is, as you read it the narrative transforms itself to reflect your inner projections. Whatever meaning you attribute to Clarice's words comes from your inner life. But, as she said, "don't worry about understanding. To be alive is much vaster than understanding..." Enjoy the ride. Enjoy the vision of your soul.
P.S. I strongly recommend this book to the dying, to those facing major life transitions, and to the truly living.

Clarice Lispector is certainly the best thing we have concerning to women literature in Brazil.She is able to touch our hidden feelings. This small book contains every thing one must reads over a lifetime.Sometimes it hurts, sometimes it tastes delicious.

Clarice writes beautiful poetry, but in prose. She permanently talks about solitude in large cities, most the times about woman solitude.

There is a totally trivial incident. Someone is alone in a flat that gives a view of granite hills (a very common sight at Rio de Janeiro, where she lived). Suddenly she finds a huge cockroach and has to fight or flee. And facing it, reviews her whole life, identifies with the cockroach and takes the decision to fight her fears.

The above script may not sound much, but Clarice is a master of the word, writes marvellous short stories and, as Guimaraes Rosa, another brazilian writer tells, "the Devil is on the details".

Un autor particular, extraordinario, que te hace sentir todo el sabor (y la complicadez) de lo que te cuenta. Cuenta cosas que parecen complicadas. Lo son para describirlas, pero todos las hemos vivido. Y cuenta tan bien, en las entrnhas de las cosas, que cuando lo leas casi te sientes mal

Un autor particular, extraordinario, que te hace sentir todo el sabor (y la complcadez) de lo que te cuenta

The oddness of Felisberto Hernandez, the man, may perhaps eclipse the essential weirdness of his fictions. There is somewhat of a mystery surrounding him: he was a pianist who used to work accompanying silent movies. He traveled extensively, performing concerts. He took up writing somewhat later in life, remained more or less anonymous up to his death. Today, he is hardly known outside of Latin American literature and yet has inspired the so-called `magical realism' literary movement, made popular in the works of the Nobel-prize winning author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Piano Stories, so named by the publishers because nearly every single story incorporates a piano, is the first collection of Felisberto's work translated into English. It is meant to serve as a representative exhibition of the writer's career. It features fifteen pieces, two of them being short novellas (`The Stray Horse' and `The Daisy Dolls') and some others no more than a page and a half long. The introduction is penned by Italo Calvino - another major writer who was apparently influenced by Hernandez.

The adjectives befitting the overall `feel' of the Piano Stories would be: elegant, absurd, surreal and otherworldly. There are repeated motifs of the nature of memory, as explored in the story `Just Before Falling Asleep' and `The Green Heart', and more extensively in `The Stray Horse' where the narrator is aware of an impending attempt to distort a series of childhood memories, for if a person were capable of changing his memories, as one changes stage settings, would that not result in a different person inhabiting the present? In `The Flooded House' a widow has decided that water has the inherent quality required for nurturing memory: "water is the place to grow memories, because it transforms everything reflected in it and it's receptive to thought." (Hernandez, P.246)

In these short stories, inanimate objects acquire a life of their own when viewed in certain light - furniture is able to reveal secrets about a person and in the eerie novella, `The Daisy Dolls', a man has an affair with a life-like replica doll of his wife.
Eccentric characters abound: in `The Balcony' the reader makes the acquaintance of an agoraphobic who believes that individual parts of her house have a soul. In `The Usher' the narrator, having grown accustomed to dark surroundings, acquires a persistent glow in his eyes.

Many of the stories proceed as hypnagogic trances, surreal romps through exotic surroundings. The writing style is average on the whole: a few genuine lyrical waves are balanced out by a number of slumps now and then, owing perhaps to the work's translation from Spanish. There are instances when the reader feels as if Hernandez does not quite know how to express clearly the ideas he has or to fully develop a consistent flow, as in `The Two Stories' or the unbearable `The Woman Who Looked Like Me'.
This collection of stylish pieces is enjoyable for its atmospheric engagement but in the end, looking behind the screen, the reader may come out empty-handed.

Felisberto Hernendez' Piano Stories is a rare book indeed. His stories were the precursors of what is now called "magic realsim" (the style of writers such as Garcia-Marquez and Jeanette Winterson), but his tales are truly unique. They are concered with the haunting mysteries of life, and have a dreamy, otherworldly quality which draws you inextricably into them. A cast of eccentric characters and off-the-wall occurrences will keep you on your toes. I kept putting off reading the last story in the book, because I didn't want the fun to be over.

As I Spanish native speaker, I must say that it is hard to find good bilingual books for my child. This book has a lot of vocabulary and the Spanish translation was well done. My child loves the pictures (although, many of them are very similar) and it is an easy read. I highly recommend it.

Two of my children who recently started studying Spanish, fell in love with this Picture Book Dictionary. Unlike some of the other rather dull children dictionaries, this book retains my kid's attention for long periods of time! They like its clear, concise phrases, supported by interesting and engaging illustrations. Examples, given in this book, are very user-friendly, so learning Spanish becomes interesting and fun. I am sure that parents who want their children to make rapid progress in studying Spanish, would be as happy with Valerie Laud's Picture Book Dictionary, as we are. Thank you, Valerie!

An English/Spanish bilingual reference deftly organized by Valerie Laud and brightly illustrated Valentine Latushkin , The Picture Book Dictionary presents 3,000 words commonly found in children's picturebook stories. Each word is used in a sentence (in both English and Spanish) and demonstrated with a simple, friendly color illustration. For example, the entry for hot/caliente reads "The pie is still very hot"/"El pastel todavia esta muy caliente" and has a picture of a hot pie held in a woman's oven mitts. Especially recommended for bilingual families, The Picture Book Dictionary offers an easy-to-use introduction and beginning self-start education for bright youngsters.

As a linguistic professor I go over numerous publications all the time. This dictionary is just GREAT for children (5 to 9, even 3 to 9 years old) and I would consider it as a #1 pick for young language learners. It really makes language studies effective and fun at the same time. My 2 grandchildren find this book very helpful in their Spanish studies and they adore the illustrations. It also helped tremendously to improve their English spelling skills. This Picture Book Dictionary by Valerie Laud features simple key phrases for children's basic conversations in English and Spanish languages; marvelous illustrations help to learn and remember the phrases. Children have incredible visual memory.
I have also introduced this edition to the ESL adult students and they were extremely pleased with it. This Dictionary by Valerie Laud I find to be a great source for studies of both English and Spanish languages.
For adult's (English-Spanish) language studies my best pick will be The New Oxford Picture Book Dictionary (English/Spanish) by E.C. Parnwell.