Un granjero de diez años

Rating:
Summary: Un Granjero de Diez Años
Review: As a child growing up in the U.S. who read and loved the Little House series, as a mother who loved reading the books years later to my own children and now, working in a ministry with at-risk children in South American, I was excited to see the Little House books are available in Spanish.

The book is faithfully translated and a joy to read but I had a few problems which are important to note. First, reading is not a custom in South America, books are expensive and there are no public libraries available to poor children (at least not where we live in Bogotá, Colombia). So a book that is geared to a 10-yr-old's reading level in the U.S. is likely to be too advanced for a 10-yr-old in South America. I found the translation to be above the reading level of the average 10-yr-old. Perhaps the translator could have used a simpler vocabulary in some areas.

For example, there is very little snow in Latin America and the vocabulary for snow terms could have been simplified since these words are not in common usage.

Also, Latin American countries use the metric system so translating measurements in the U.S. system isn't understandable. For instance, "foot" is not a unit of measurement, to nearly all Latin American kids it's the body part at the end of your leg. Measurements should be given in meters not feet and kilometers not miles or children will be confused.

Also, and this is my personal pet peeve, it's troubling to see English words used in place of Spanish words when there are Spanish words available. For instance, Almanzo's teacher is called Mister Course when the titles Señor or Profesor are more appropriate.

For English-speaking children who want to improve their Spanish vocabulary and grammar, Un Granjero de Diez Años is a great book. For Spanish-speaking children, this book is just as delightful, amusing and memorable as Farmer Boy.