Reviews

I'll admit I have a little bias when it comes to these foreign lanugage picture books from Capstone Press. No, I'm not getting paid (I get a little paranoid this time of year, IRS people!!). However, since we are part of Wycliffe Bible Translators, I think that anything that encourages kids to look past their own culture and be aware of what else is around this world is a good thing. The two books I reviewed this week, My First Book of... Mandarin Chinese Words and ...Japanese Words are nearly identical - except for the completely different language thing. They give some really helpful pronunciation guides. If you're an American adult, you're pretty limited in how you use your mouth to make sounds. Almost all our English words use muscles toward the front of our mouths (or so I was told by a linguist down in Dallas). But a kid hasn't completely lost the ability to make those sounds - which is one of the reasons why it's so good to learn a foreign language while you're young. The reading level for these books is Gr. 1-2, but the interest level is PreK - 2. Again if your toddler is used to being read to, they will have no problem sitting through these books. The photographs are bright and colorful - it always seems like my little ones love to see real faces, not just drawings. There are numbers and useful phrases taught too and like other Capstone books there is a link to FactHound so you can learn more on the Internet in a safe way. These aren't narrative books (telling a story) - they just help your child learn words in a different language in a really neat way. We have a good friend who lives in China and speaks Mandarin Chinese, so next time she's home we'll have to show off for her! http: //toliverstotexas.blogspot.com/2010/04/thursday-childrens-book-review-tintin.html-- "Tolivers to Texas Blog"