Customer Reviews

Jorge el Curioso

5 star:		(10)
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.

Yes... the man in the yellow hat is a poacher. Yes... George (Jorge) sets a bad example. We still love this book at our house. Right now my daughter is 5 months old, and since she was barely 1 month she has been able to sit through an entire reading of Jorge el Curioso! We're a bilingual household, so hearing Spanish is nothing new to her, but she loves to look at Rey's bright, delightful illustrations and listen to my voice. The translation is excellent--I did not read the original, full-text story (in English or Spanish) as a kid, but I can't imagine it any other way now. Believe me, I have read this book MANY times already (I read to her daily) and still enjoy it.

Perhaps when my daughter gets older some of the values and events of the book will warrant discussion (George's pipe smoking, the kidnapping of George, the fact that his "travesuras" always come out alright in the end). Like every parent wants for their child, I want my daughter to grow up compassionate and responsible (and tobacco-free), but what's a childhood book collection without at least a little mischief? The book is great fun and this is one of the best Spanish translations of a children's book I've seen, bottom line.

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.