Customer Reviews

Easy Spanish Reader

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Enrique and Maria are seniors at Glenview High School, learning Spanish and enjoying the activities of their Spanish club, los Aventureros. They have an enjoyable senior year, playing sports, going to movies, and even exchanging "e-mails" with students from Spain. As we say goodbye to Enrique and Maria their friendship is ripening into--well, maybe, something more. So, what will finally happen? You will just have to read the book to find out--in Spanish.

Two subsequent sections of the book comprise a brief history of Mexico--in full blood and gore--from the Aztecs to Vicente Fox; and a shortened adaptation of a classic 16th century Spanish work, Lazarillo do Tormes.

Easy Spanish Reader is based on the concept that you learn quickest by simply reading. The lessons are progressive so that you learn quickly, incorporating new words based on context. There are no tedious grammar lessons or vocabulary lists. No verb conjugations. Everything explains itself, except for a small number of marginal glosses for new vocabulary words. As other reviewers have noted, a certain rudimentary knowledge of Spanish is essential to use this book, but it can be minimal. The concept works, partly because English and Spanish share so many words and concepts. Exercizes after each lesson help to consolidate what has been learned.

The only flaw I could find is that the glossary at the back is incomplete. There are a few words you will just have to guess at. I enjoyed this book thoroughly, and I feel it has greatly enhanced my knowledge of Spanish. I recommend it highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

If you've had a semester or two of Spanish, and you truly want to learn the langauge, I highly recommend this book. The book begins with very simple words and phrases and progresses at a moderate pace to more difficult readings.

I tried other "beginner" books (such as "First Spanish Reader"), but I found them too advanced after only a few months in the classroom. Now, "Easy Spanish Reader" has helped me bridge the gap from my textbook to hispanic newspapers and short stories (and to "First Spanish Reader" again).

My edition (the second) has an answer key for the exercises (although you won't need it) and a pretty good glossary.

Hint: Re-read the passages every now and then, and make flash cards out of the few words you don't remember. You'll be surprised how quickly you can learn that way.

This is the best book I've read for someone learning Spanish. It uses terminology within the 1st semester and has a very good grasp of which words need further definition. I highly recommend this book for anyone learning Spanish. It does not speak down to the student, but instead, gives the student credit for a good deal of intelligence and shows confidence in the reader. I give this book top marks and rate it at the top of it's class.

I used audio learning (Pimsleur; Learn Spanish in your Car; Vocabulearn). This book was excellent to help me bridge my audio comprehension to visual/reading. I don't know why the 2nd edition is labelled "Abridged". The only difference I noticed is that the 2nd edition has an increased page count, and it has the answers to the exercises at the end of the book. I didn't notice any material removed.

I love this book! Not only am I refreshing my memory of beginner level spanish vocabulario (Me llamo un ano tres estudiante espanol), but i am finally learning how to read more fluently in Spanish, and understanding it more coherently than i ever did before! It surprises me that they don't use this book in class for all grade levels of spanish students. Sure, for a second or third year student, it's a piece of torta(cake)! But, it's truly a great way to refresh the memory of simple vocabulary, and it's entertaining, unlike the very boring spanish stories that we had to read in class. I would recommend this book to beginners, second year, and third year students!

This is a terrific book for older children through young adults who are starting to learn Spanish. It moves seamlessly from raw beginner to reasonable reading levels, without talking down to the reader. Plus, being successful early on really motivates the student. The Spanish tutor that we work with uses it as the centrepiece of the lessons, spinning out vocabulary and grammer exercises from the text, and the interest level stays high for the children. We bought it on the strength of the other reviews on Amazon, and it has really lived up to the praise.

My students hated this book. I read it years ago but it was far too boring for my eighth grade class. If you're looking for a reader, I'd recommend the Blaine Ray series. It's easy vocabulary; the first book uses only 300 words and has 9 chapters. I had my students read a chapter for homework and then we acted it out in class.

This book is often missing the correct usage of the third person indirect object pronouns "le" and "les". There are several instances in which its says "dar a alguien" where it should be "darle a alguien". This is very bad because I started using it with my students when they began to learn these pronouns. They noticed right away that they were missing.

p. 90: "entonces dijo a sus soldados" should be "entonces LES dijo a sus soldados"

p. 90: "y pronto estos ofrecieron su ayuda a Cortes" should be "y pronto estos LE ofrecieron su ayuda a Cortes".

p. 78: "La directora inicia la ceremonia y habla a los presentes" should be "la directora inicia la ceremonia y LES habla a los presentes".

p. 78: "Despues la directora entrega los diplomas a cada uno de los alumnos" should be " Despues la directora LEs entrega los diplomas a cada uno de los alumnos."

They're all over the place.

I own this product, use it, and enjoy it. With the CD, it is certainly a bargain at less than $15. The CD is a computer CD and is best used by installing. I don't know why the description indicates that it can be used in any CD player as this doesn't seem to be the case. The book cover does not indicate this. The program does a good job with voice, on screen transcription, and answers. The CD is not required after installing. You can also extract the mp3 files via the installed program and install to an mp3 player. Per other review, the second of the three sections is not on the CD...strange.
I really enjoy practicing with complete, conversational passages and not just random sentences as textbooks usually do. This is not a beginner's learning book and CD but it is good practice for the intermediate learner. The passages become increasingly advanced. Each passage has definitions on the same page for words and idiomatic phrases that are less well known. Though there is a decent vocabulary in the back of the book, I didn't have to reference it for several passages.
There are no explanations of any grammer. You should be able to recognize most grammer use such as reflexive verbs, subjunctive tense, etc as they are used without explanation. If you are also to the stage in your Spanish study that you know most of the grammar rules but want more practice with text, then you should also enjoy this book and CD.
Yo he aprendido mucho de este libro con CD. Puedo recomendarlo, sobre todo cuando cuesta menos de 15 dólares.
PS The more I work with it, the more I like the practice. It is a 5 star bargain for intermediate practice, for sure.

Since I'm not a native speaker I had my class concentrate more on learning to read and translate Spanish. They pretty much liked this book. They were more interested in the stories about the two high school students Maria and Enrique than the history of the Spanish conquest or the story of Lazarillo de Tormes. The sections are short and accompanied by sets of questions to be answered as well as true false questions and even crossword puzzles. This book is very easy to read. The author uses mostly present tense and lots of cognates. My students were mostly 2nd year repeats and they were able to get through it.