Customer Reviews

Jorge el Curioso (Curious George)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this for my three-year-old granddaughter at Christmas. She loves it and has developed a pretty good accent (as good as mine, anyhow :) She knows what a bolsa is, and a monito and of course a sombrero amarillo. She has it firmly in mind that balloon = globo, so the globe of the world is like a balloon. Red is rojo and blue is azul.

And she hasn't yet taken to smoking a pipe :)

What's especially interesting is that she doesn't require that the story be translated, though she does like to talk about what Jorge is up to on a given page. "WHY did the man put Jorge in a bolsa?"

The dust jacket for this book, which you can view here on amazon by clicking "Search inside this book" advertises: "This translation has been made especially for American children who want to learn Spanish. They will find a complete vocabulary at the end of the book. In addition, some Spanish phrases and expressions that may be unknown to the beginner are translated at the foot of each page."

Strangely, the book itself does not have those features. While it is a charming book, and my children will certainly enjoy it, there is no vocabulary at the end of the book, and there are no footnotes.

If you like Curious George, you'll enjoy him all over again in Spanish. Jorge is unstoppable- he gets to know the city and finds a happy home at the zoo. The fun is in the trouble that he causes along the way!

My husband and I are both fluent in Spanish and we love this book for our two year old son. I speak only Spanish to him, hubby speaks to him in both English and Spanish. We are always looking for good books in Spanish.
This one has great, colourful pictures (there are two pictures with pipe smokers in them, but come on! It is a classic and if you can't teach your children not to smoke, is this really going to influence them that much!ha ha)and lots of good vocabulary for every day things written into a simple, fun story. It is beyond the "board book level" and yet not so complicated that a 22 month old gets bored. On the weekend, he asks his dad to read it 4 or 5 times a day, AND he will happily sit through the whole thing, especially the zoo animals at the end. (That is my only problem...the suggestion that the zoo is the greatest place to live!! in Captivity!!)

Note that there is not an English translation included, but if you are learning Spanish (and especially if you know the English story already) and want a bit of a challenge for yourself, the pictures will help you with YOUR vocabulary development, too.

If you'd like to teach your child Spanish, reading meaningful books is a great way to do it. As other reviewers have noted, this story is easy enough to give hints for vocabulary memorization - and the child will retain the story as well as the words. If you're worried about pronunciation, you can get something with a CD like Flip Flop Spanish to help you and your child gain more confidence as well as to be able to talk ABOUT the story in Spanish.

My weekly Spanish classes (ages 4 to 40) all love it when I read aloud to them, and this is a book I use often. It keeps them laughing and increases vocabulary.

Sra. Gose
Author of Flip Flop Spanish: Ages 3-5: Level 1 & Flip Flop Spanish: Ages 3-5: Level 2

There are so few of these, especially from an English original. Buy it for your kids to learn more Spanish.

I used to like this when I was a child, so I bought it for my son. I read through it and IT'S HORRIFIC! They steal the monkey from the forest in Africa (put him in a bag) and he ends up in a zoo. The last line reads, "¡Hacia el ZOOLOGICO! ¡Qué lugar más bonito para vivir!" How horrible! I do not want to teach my child that animals actually like zoos. It'd be much better if he came from a circus and ended up at a reserve, or something. This is just horrible and I think I'm going to burn it. I do not want to teach my son those values.

I love Curious George, and so do most kids. I teach high school Spanish and the kids remember reading this when they were little. I use it to teach past tense verbs.

This book will be a nice addition to my daughter's teaching library. She is a Spanish teacher at a local elementary school.

What could be better than a smoking monkey? A monkey smoking in Spanish? Maybe. Anyone looking for the classic "Curious George" book in Spanish can stop clamoring for succor. End your journey and your wailing, it's here. This volume includes the classic tale in a much deserved, complete, very readable and uncensored translation. What more does anyone need? Well, perhaps a warning is in order for the squeamish: though this book gets subsumed under the category "children's book," remember that it was originally published in 1941, a time with a vastly different ethos. In this book, Curious George happily smokes a pipe ("una buena pipa"), is taken from Africa by a European and put in a zoo which is depicted as the greatest thing that could ever happen to him. If any of this sounds potentially offensive, then jam the gears in reverse and look for another book. No effort was made to clean up the original as-is story for the Spanish edition (thankfully). George enthusiastically revels in all his mischief: he tries to fly in imitation of seagulls, which lands him in the ocean; he accidentally calls the fire department, which sends them flailing towards what they think is a fire; he cleverly escapes from prison; and, bursting with curiosity he flies off with two fistfuls of balloons and wafts over the city. Everything remains for those who simply want to read the classic tale in Spanish.

Those looking for Children's books as a Spanish language aid, be aware that "Jorge el Curioso," though not difficult, does not cater to absolute beginners. The present subjunctive appears at least once ("no hagas travesuras") as well as various compound tenses. Those unfamiliar with these tenses as well as the preterite or imperfect may get a workout, though not an insurmountable one. Numerous absolute beginner books exist including First Spanish Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book (Beginners' Guides) (English and Spanish Edition) or nearly any bilingual editions (in fact, a bilingual edition of this very book exists). This advice applies mostly to adult learners, however, and isn't meant to discourage using "Jorge el Curioso" as a Spanish language aid for children.

So read this fantastic translation to revel in the anachronistic mischief or simply as a learning tool. Either way it delivers.