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Welcome to my “reading to improve” series, where I share which books in Spanish I’m reading aloud with my daughter and review them. this is our first jump into the chapter books and I’m excited to share our experiences with you!
In this post, I discuss some of the ways I’ve improved my daughter’s Spanish vocabulary, what kind of Spanish chapter books to buy, and what our best options are. All of these Spanish chapter books are perfect for reading aloud. If you are looking for books in Spanish that are easy to read, I recommend starting with graphic novels in Spanish.
You are reading: Chapter books in spanish
building our Spanish vocabulary with non-fiction books
I’ve been writing a lot recently about how to increase your vocabulary in the Spanish language. my daughter and I have been learning Spanish together for four years and we are reaching a solid conversation level.
We learn new vocabulary as needed by using the dictionary to look up words or concepts we want to know the word for, but I realized I needed to start actively increasing our Spanish vocabulary level.
Part of that understanding comes from the fact that my daughter is approaching school age and I’ve realized that there are so many academic words that we don’t know well.
It is important to me that your Spanish is as strong as your English and I need to be able to provide you with a high level of academic vocabulary and conversational language.
One of the ways I have worked to increase your academic vocabulary in Spanish has been through the use of non-fiction books. Nonfiction books are great because they add level 3 vocabulary words to our language, like science words or content-specific words (decomposition, mummification, etc.).
Although it has been more difficult to find non-fiction books in Spanish, my daughter has a growing collection and we have been working on them and learning good terminology.
Read here some good series of non-fiction books in Spanish:
Spanish non-fiction books for children
why we started chapter books
Another way I have increased her Spanish vocabulary is through chapter books. While picture books often include a wider range of vocabulary (reading aloud helps your Spanish) than everyday conversation, chapter books include a much stronger word variety, more complex sentence structures, and more resources. literary.
My daughter and I have enjoyed working on several chapter books and I have been pleasantly surprised at how much we have learned by working with a higher level of Spanish than we were used to.
For the first round of chapter books, I purposely chose books that I enjoyed in English and bought the Spanish translated editions. Since I am not a native Spanish speaker, I was concerned that the vocabulary level might be too high for me and that I would lose the plot of the story if it was a completely new book for me.
I’ll be adding to this series as we read another portion of books so you can see our progress and what we recommend as good read alouds in Spanish for your family!
a note on translations and Latin American Spanish vs. Spanish from Spain
several people have asked me what kind of Spanish I try to use with my daughter, Latin American Spanish or Spanish from Spain.
I am not Hispanic and have no ties to any particular Spanish-speaking country. My main concern is to make sure that my daughter and I can speak Spanish at a high level and quality.
Because we live in the United States, most of the videos/songs that are available through services like Netflix and Amazon Music are automatically provided with the Latin American Spanish translation. therefore, most of our music and shows are in Latin American Spanish. in our area of the united states, all the dvds we receive and use with audio in spanish always come with the audio in latin american spanish.
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However, most of the non-fiction books and translated chapters I have found for my daughter are Spanish editions from Spain. I’m not worried about the fact that we mix Spanish from different countries and I don’t feel that we should limit our exposure to Spanish to one type of translation over another.
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the first chapter books we read in Spanish
Charlotte’s web
author: e.b white
isbn-13: 978-0-06-075740-3
What We Liked: “Charlotte’s Web” is a children’s classic and was the first chapter book my daughter and I read together. every night we read a chapter and talked about what happened.
One of the reasons this book is a great introduction to chapter books is because each chapter is episodic and relatively contained. the chapters recount the adventures of fern, wilbur, charlotte and the animals on the zuckerman farm over the course of a few months. my daughter loved that each chapter was an adventure and that there was enough action to take her through the book without missing a beat.
The characters are another reason this book is a great start to reading chapter books. while the characters are relatively simple, there is some character growth and a variety of predictable character types. my daughter would love to see templeton the rat saying “oh templeton! now what is she going to do? her predictable pattern of antics made him one of her favorite characters.
If you’re looking for a good chapter book to start with, “Charlotte’s Web” is a good place. the Spanish isn’t so high that an intermediate reader can’t keep up, there’s plenty of dialogue to move the story along, and the setting descriptions do a good job of adding new vocabulary.
charlie and the chocolate factory
author: roald dahl
isbn-13: 978-1-59820-059-1
What We Liked: Roald Dahl is famous for his many beautifully written children’s books and this was the first one I wanted to introduce to my daughter. As with “Charlotte’s Web,” the characters are relatively simple and don’t go through big changes, making them predictable for a child to follow. each chapter is short, sometimes only 2-3 pages, which makes it nice for a quick read before bed if you go chapter by chapter.
Roald Dahl is known for adding dark undertones in his children’s books, although I consider “Charlie” to be one of his lighter books. The other four winning kids who go with Charlie on the adventure through the chocolate factory all represent a facet of society that Dahl wishes to comment on, and it’s fun to see how their flaws mesh perfectly with the candy creations of the Mr. wonka.
This chapter book is a step up from “Charlotte’s Web” in difficulty for several reasons. the famous oompa loompas of the factory from time to time start to sing (long songs that can last a few pages…). my daughter had a hard time following the songs because the wording was a little weird for them to rhyme or sound good, they often made social comments, alluding to things like bad parenting or how people watch too much tv, and it often required a bit of inference to really understand. the narrative also includes more literacy devices such as “puns” that may be more difficult for a new Spanish learner or child to understand.
The level of Spanish is also higher than that of “charlotte’s web” and includes less common vocabulary. While many Spanish learners have a good idea of basic farm vocabulary to help them get through “charlotte’s web,” it’s less common to have words for “everlasting gobstoppers” and other magical candy explanations.
This is a good book to get into for a child who has a solid foundation in Spanish and has already listened to a chapter book or two.
the little mouse on the motorcycle
author: beverly cleary
isbn-13: 978-0060000578
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What we liked: It was the easiest chapter book we’ve read and it was a fun adventure story! Beverly Cleary has written extensively for children and her chapter books are often easy and light beginner books for beginning chapter book readers.
keith is a boy who is on vacation at a hotel and befriends a mouse named ralph who lives there. They both share a love of motorcycles, and their adventures are easy to follow and full of dialogue, which keeps the story going nicely, especially for a kid who’s new to chapter books.
I would say that the level of Spanish in this book was the easiest of all the books we read. there were a few words related to “hotel” that my daughter wasn’t familiar with, but other than that, we understood pretty easily what was going on. there were few literary devices, and not much to infer, which made the story easy to follow. This book is written at a second or third grade level and is intended for children who are just beginning to read chapter books more independently.
This is a good chapter book to start with, especially if you’re not a fluent Spanish reader. The language and story are easy to follow, and the adventure story will keep a young child interested without much explanation about the plot and characters.
matilda (matilda)
author: roald dahl
isbn-13: 978-1-947783-36-2
what we liked: i mentioned earlier that roald dahl is known for adding dark layers to his books. Matilda, while full of magic and adventure, definitely has a darker, more mature feel than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. From the patronizing attitude of Matilda’s parents to the terrifying trunchbull, there are undertones of child abuse and neglect in this story.
Despite the dark layers of this book, it was by far my daughter’s favorite of the four we read and probably the hardest as well.
although it’s hard to find friendly characters in this story, matilda and miss. honey are so adorable that they quickly become your favorites in no time. Unlike some of the other chapter books we read, several of the characters in this book go through changes and have more complex interactions than the characters in the previous books. Matilda develops powers in her eyes halfway through the book and gets lost. Honey’s troubled past is revealed to us and connected to her current interactions with the trunchbull.
The Spanish in this book was definitely the highest level of the four books we read and there were several times that we had to look up words in the dictionary to help us better understand what was going on. Despite that, this book is a very engaging read and a true classic of children’s literature!
This is a good book to read with a child who has a solid foundation in Spanish, has already heard a few chapter books, and isn’t easily spooked by mild drama and “bad guys.”
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
author: jk rowling
isbn-13: 978-8498387094
What We Liked: We loved this book so much that I actually wrote an entire post dedicated to it! This book is one of my childhood favorites and I was so excited to read the new illustrated version and to share the experience with my daughter. Check out my full review here!
if you’re looking for more of my “reading to improve series”, check out this next installment:
The chapter books have been a great step forward in our learning of Spanish and I will add another post in the series to review the next set of books we read. If you have any suggestions or recommendations, let me know in the comments!
Happy learning!
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