If you’re looking for books that teach kids Spanish, you’ve come to the right place. Below I’ve included a small selection of books for every level of interest. Well, except for fluency. I’ll post some Spanish language books for kids in the upcoming months. In the meantime, check out these books below and let me know in the comments if anything is missing.
Kid-friendly introduction to Spanish
Teach Me… Everyday Spanish
by Judy Mahoney (Author), Linda Nelson (Editor), Patrick Girouard (Illustrator)
This is my go-to recommendation for families who want a basic language introduction. It’s a book and CD with a lot of words and songs in Spanish and English. We’ve used it ourselves and my kids don’t mind it at all. They won’t become fluent speakers, but they’ll have fun trying out Spanish.
Spanish Language: Step 1, The Spanish Alphabet
Unlike other languages we’ve looked at so far (see: Russian and Japanese), the Spanish Alphabet uses the same letters we use in English. The difference is the pronunciation. This is a wall poster that sounds out each letter of the alphabet. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Another option is to head to YouTube and watch one of the videos there. Like this one:
or this one:
Spanish Language: Step 2, First Spanish Words
Now that we’re familiar with the alphabet, let’s look at some books that focus on the most important words to learn in Spanish.
My First Spanish Word Board Book
by DK (Author)
DK books are wonderful with putting words and photos together in a way other books just don’t do as well. So, you’ll notice that they’re going to be heavily recommended now. I like this book that uses – you guessed it – pictures – to help kids learn Spanish. It’s not something you can set kids out on their own to learn, but it is a good way to start introducing words to them.
My First Spanish Picture Dictionary
by DK (Author)
This takes the same ideas as above, but expands it to come up with 2,000 words in translation via photos.
Visual Spanish English Bilingual Dictionary
by DK (Author)
Ok, this isn’t technically for kids. But, I had to include it because my kids love looking at the one we have in our house for German. Of all the different styles we have, this one has become their favorite as they get older. I’ll take anything I can get when it comes to teaching them a language
Spanish Language: Step 3, the grammar
Brighter Child: Spanish
This is a series of books for learning Spanish. The first is very introductory and may be better for kids with absolutely no Spanish language. You can start at a higher level (like level 2 or level 3) if needed.
I know there are a lot of resources out there for learning Spanish. What do you recommend?
If you’re learning about Spanish and want to read some children’s books about countries where Spanish is the official language, check out these posts:
It’s also the official language of Puerto Rico and commonly spoken in the United States, Belize, Andorra, and Gibraltar.
