I have been meaning to do a post about our favorite books lately, but I never seem to get around to it. I really would like to have record of some of them so that I remember to check them out again. We are very lucky to have a library system FULL of great books in Spanish. However, since it is made up of over ten libraries, I have to look for the books online and order them to be delivered to my closest library to prevent driving all over town.
Mateo is obsessed with dinosaurs right now. I mean OBSESSED. He has never had a favorite stuffed animal or lovey that he was really attached to. He has found love now in the form of little plastic dinosaurs. He eats with them, bathes with them, reads with them, and carries them everywhere. I think that is why I love these books so much- the little boy reminds me so much of Mateo. This is a series of books about a little boy, Dani, who finds a box of old dinosaurs in the attic, fixes them up, and carries them around in a little blue bucket. So far we have found four at our library and I am looking for a couple more. They are available in English too.
The next couple of books are all from a series of books made by a company called The Magic Castle. They are also available in English and I highly recommend them. They would make fairly easy early readers and (the Spanish versions) would be great for beginning to intermediate Spanish learners.
This book is about a little boy who finds a spaceship with an astronaut ready for take-off. Pablo wants to go to the moon also but he keeps remembering more and more things that he would like to take with him. After filling the ship with his pets, food, toys, and materials to build a house, the ship can't lift off of the ground.
We have read this book so many times that I probably should just buy it. A little boy finds a dinosaur that grants him a wish. The boy wishes that the dinosaur with stay with him all day and be his friend. The two get into trouble when the boy tries to teach the dinosaur tricks.
Besides dinosaurs Mateo also loves hippopotamuses. This is mostly due to a book that I will mention next time. I checked out this book just because of the main character but it turned out to be one of our favorites. The little hippopotamus gets hurt because he is playing dangerously and his mother and father show him how to behave safely. My favorite part of the book is a "Be Careful book" that they suggest you make at the end of the book. It covers not touching poison, not talking to strangers, etc. It is a great way to talk about safety at a level that preschoolers can understand and we plan to make our own safety book soon as a StArt project.
Head over to Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns to see other great book recommendations.