Easy Spanish Reader

Rating:
Summary: The Best I've Seen
Review: After years of studying several languages...I have finally discovered a fantastic method of graduated learning. Most language books promise you "Language in a week, month, etc..." then barrage you with too-difficult material much too quickly. This book makes no such claims, but truly delivers...you can set your own pace, and it begins so simply and accelerates so gradually you barely notice the increase in difficulty. Thanks, Mr. Tardy for finally getting it right.

Rating:
Summary: Walking Right Into Spanish
Review: 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.



Rating:
Summary: Amo este libro!
Review: I honestly love this book. One of the things I prize about it is that it is genuinely funny. Oh the chapter about Enrique's mala suerte...espero espero pero no el director ---is precious. The first time through I was just reading to hear the words and follow the story, but my second pass through I am paying attention to verb tenses and conjugations. Verbs (and other words) keep re-appearing in different ways throughout the text, in different contexts, and one comes away with sense of discovery and mastery

Rating:
Summary: Amo este libro!
Review: I honestly love this book. One of the things I prize about it is that it is genuinely funny. Oh the chapter about Enrique's mala suerte...espero espero pero no el director ---is precious. The first time through I was just reading to hear the words and follow the story, but my second pass through I am paying attention to verb tenses and conjugations. Verbs (and other words) keep re-appearing in different ways throughout the text, in different contexts, and one comes away with sense of discovery and mastery

Rating:
Summary: Excellent way to learn Spanish
Review: I recommend this book highly for anyone who has a very basic (and it need be only very basic) understanding of beginner Spanish. The book is broken up into very short readings followed by questions or othjer exercises. This book should not be the sole source to learn Spanish because there is no pronunciation guide and definitions of words in the text don't always distinguish first person, second person plural etc. Therefore, you need to have some idea of these grammatical rules. However, this book is a great way to learn to read and to expand on your very basic knowledge of the language. You can read and try to understand everything from the context. If you need help in understanding, there is a glossary of new words introduced into each of the readings. This really helps in learning not only to read but to speak. I find this book to be one of the easiest ways to build vocabulary. I enjoy using this reader and I think it's a wonderful resource for the beginning student.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent for beginners to intermediate
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: great for beginners!
Review: if you have decided to learn to read spanish this is the place to start! you will need no background in spanish to begin this book. the first part is about the activities of high school students, the second part is latin amercian history, and the third part is real spanish literature. the book takes you by hand and spoon feeds you gradually going from milk to more solid morsels.

Rating:
Summary: Eso es el mejor metodo de aprender
Review: Simple... this book rocks. Starts off easy, and gets progressivly harder with each chapter. It's a great way to continue with your Spanish or a supplement to college, high school or at home study. If there was a star higher then 5, I'd give it. This book is great. Highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Great Beginner Book
Review: This book helped me a lot when I was first lerning Spanish. The best way to learn vocabulary is in context, and this book gives you that. At the top of each page there is a list of vocabulary words, and after the article there are some fill-in-the-blank questions. The articles get progressively harder and build on vocabulary from previous articles. The book is divided into three sections. The first two sections contain stories about a friendship between an American girl and a Spanish boy, and the last section is about Latin American history. My only problem with this book was that the vocabulary list defined the verbs, but didn't specify which form they were in (tense, person). The solution to this problem is to buy the book "501 Spanish Verbs" and look the verbs up in it.

Rating:
Summary: Lo mejor para aprender leer en español
Review: This book is excellent for learning to read in spanish! It starts out as a very basic reader a little like see spot run, see jane run after spot kind of style involving the story of two young students who eventually fall in love and gradually progresses to intermediate history lessons and finally to the anonymous Spanish classic of Lazarillo de Tormes. I used this book when I first started learning spanish and am now a Junior at the University of California with a major in Spanish/Portuguese literature. I owe alot to this little book and recommend it highly.