Customer Reviews

Stories from Spain / Historias de España (Side by Side Bilingual Books) (English and Spanish Edition)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
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Genevieve Barlow's Stories from Spain is part of a series of bilingual books containing legends from Spanish-speaking countries. (See my anonymous review of Barlow's Stories from Latin America, 15 April 2000). This is a good book for anyone learning intermediate Spanish. It contains eighteen legends from Spain, and through these stories, some of which date back to the Moors' conquest of Spain, one can get a sense of Spanish history and culture.

Although I enjoyed the tales, I don't think the book is as good as Stories from Latin America. In that collection, the stories are roughly four pages in length; in this book, they are only two pages long (two pages each of English and Spanish). The writing seems a bit simplified and at times I felt that I was reading summaries of more intricate, and richer, legends. Also, an English-Spanish vocabulary section at the end takes up nearly one-third of the book, leaving only 113 pages for the stories themselves (as opposed to Stories from Latin America, whose sixteen tales total some 149 pages).

I'm glad I have both books in my collection, as this type of book is hard to come by. If you can afford to buy both, read Stories from Spain first, as the writing is a little bit simpler. If you can only afford to buy one, I'd go with Stories from Latin America.

This is a true bilingual book in Spanish and English. I love the format of presenting the Spanish on one page and the English equivalent on the facing page. You can easily go from one to the other. Because the stories are short and pretty basic, if you are trying to learn Spanish it is a great tutoring tool. You should already know some basic Spanish before reading the book, but for the intermediate or advanced beginner it is a great way to increase your vocabulary and practice correct sentence structure. In addition, the stories are from Spain and so teach some of the history and legends to help you get a feel for the country. Finally, there is a small dictionary at the back of the book that contains most of the words that you might encounter in the text.

Whether you use it for a review, to learn Spanish, to increase your Spanish vocabulary or just like the stories, it is a great little book and this style of dual translation books is highly recommended as an adjunct to a Spanish course of any type to recommend to speed your learning of a foreign language.

I have read both this Book and also "Stories from Puerto Rico",both of which I thoroughly enjoyed,and found very educational from a grammatical and vocabulary point of view. As a student of the language I appreciate the Authors's efforts. Both books would certainly have received 5\5 but for the dictionary at the end of each book.This I feel is uneccessary,and in each case accounts for almost 1\3 of each book.That space could surely have been taken up with more stories.In any event one has the translation,on both sides, so why the need for the dictionary.

I graduated with a BA degree in Spanish more than 30 years ago, and although I am quite fluent, I am currently reviewing and brushing up on my skills. Stories from Spain is not only a good book for intermediate Spanish students, but also for those of us who need to "get up to speed" once again. The bilingual format does it's job, which is to allow the reader to gain fluency without getting discouraged by having to constantly look up words in the dictionary. It is also a great way for the student to get immediate feedback on his/her reading comprehension.
The legends are clever, heartwarming, and many contain a moral lesson. I thoroughly enjoyed each story.

This is an excellent book for someone who speaks a little Spanish, but is not comfortable with fluent conversations. It has one short story in Spanish on one page and then in English on the next, so you can always check yourself, or read it in English, if you prefer. You get to see the verbs conjugated properly and can learn some of the phrases. The stories are interesting and help to make you a little more cultured. I definitely recommend this book.

I bought the whole series when I started to teach myself Spanish. It's a great bi-lingual starter, with Spanish on the right hand pages and the English translations on the left hand pages. It's a great starting point to get yourself dug-in to Spanish, at a simple to middle level of literature. The stories are great fun to read, and I have read them numberous times with better understanding and speed each time. I wish they had more of these in the series... they really are entertaining, as well as instructional.

I speak Spanish fairly well and can read technical manuals in Spanish without a problem, but I haven't read many novels in Spanish. I bought this book to advance my Spanish reading ability hoping it would help me to progress to more advanced works. I'm still in that transitioning phase, but I enjoyed this book enough to purchase two more from the same collection. Each page of Spanish text is accompanied by the corresponding page of English text on the opposite side. If the reader has trouble with an idiomatic expression or an unfamiliar word, the translation is readily available.

My wife is in a similar situation, but her first language is Spanish and her second is English. She too has found this book useful as a tool. If you're learning Spanish or English and wish to polish off your language skills, try this book.

I agree with the comments that this is a great book for learning Spanish. However, I am disappointed and felt mislead that the free audio download which is advertised on the cover--is in English and not the Spanish which I need.

Not great, but it was fun. I read this for my upcoming trip to Spain. I actually purchased it to aid in my learning of Spanish, but I learned more about the Spanish culture and folk lore. Glad I bought it.

Shipping was so fast. This book is great for Intermediate Level. Stories are great, easy to understand and to read. I used it in my Spanish Classes. A lot of vocabulary but they're easy. I love all stories in this book. I recommend it. I bought it used. I didn't have any problem. Condition was like description.