Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4033 in Books
• Published on: 1988-12-01
• Original language: Spanish
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Language Notes
Text: English, Spanish

Customer Reviews

First Spanish Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book
First Spanish Reader: A Beginner's Dual Language Book, is an excellent beginner book for the Spanish neophyte or for the individual with some background in Spanish that needs a little refreshing. It contains 41 short stories/proverbs in somewhat graded difficulty of well-known Spanish writers past and present. Spanish verbal forms, that bugaboo for most students of Spanish, are arranged so that the first 15 selections are in the present-indicative, after which imperfect-indicative and preterite are introduced, followed by future and conditional verbs towards the end. No subjunctive verb forms are found in this small volume. Idiomatic Spanish is introduced as well, using common idioms understood in all parts of Spanish-speaking world.

The choice of selections reflects the Spanish culture well and is excellent, often highly amusing, and arranged so that short and long selections are interspersed.

In the rear of the book, oral and written exercises regarding each selection are especially helpful if this book is to be used in the pedagogical setting. Additionally, a thorough vocabulary, referenced for the selections presented, rounds out this book.

Editor Angel Flores has done a remarkable job with this book. I would highly recommend it for the beginning Spanish student or those who wish to brush up on their prior Spanish.

Excellent first reader with a literary bent
Classy and elegant are the first words that come to mind upon going through the first few pages of this book.

The book is a selection of stories, or their portions, from the original literature, ranging from the medieval times to the first half of the 20th century, and covering both Spanish and Latin American authors. In addition, it has an occasional interlude consisting of a short poem or a selection of proverbs to tempt the neophite into further exploring the richness of the Spanish language. Being a dual-langage book, the english translation of a story appears on a facing page. I found the translation of varying utility in nailing down the nuances, but the glossary at the end of the book is quite good, so one can read without a separate dictionary at least on the first pass.

The book generally avoids the use of subjunctive and introduces the past tense only in the middle. I had thought that this would make the stories look emaciated, as is the case with a number of such readers I'd seen. Somehow, it does not happen with Flores' delightful volume; if anything, it drives the point home that verbs is not all there is to a language, rich vocabulary and phraseology are just as important, and Flores' selections definitely get across that aspect of the beauty and expressiveness of the Spanish language.

As you work through this reader, more likely than not, your motivation to keep going with your Spanish and, furthermore, to get familiar with its rich literature, will be reinforced tremendously. It will also encourage you to venture into unabridged novels and stories in Spanish sooner than you had thought possible.

Finally, an attractive price helps make it a real winner.

Great for Beginners
Excellent reader for beginners. It is broken in to "tense" sections, i.e. present tense, past, subjunctive, etc. I read it outloud with my tutor and it is very helpful. I would highly recommend it.