Kindle Fire Books and Interactive Stories for Bilingual Children

My husband and I decided that we would finally give into technology and got a Kindle Fire for the kids.  The Kindle Fire can be used to read magazines, books and watch movies and it can also be a wonderful educational tool for children.   There are thousands of children’s books available in digital format and the Kindle Fire has features which make reading easier and keep children engaged including an option to have the books read aloud and the allowing kids to zoon into the text over images to read small font.  We love the price and the since most of the Android apps are compatible with the Kindle Fire there are lots of options for educational apps, interactive books and entertaining games.

KINDLE CHILDREN’S BOOKS IN SPANISH

The Amazon Online Store offers a wide array of children’s books in digitial format and some of our favorite ones in Spanish include:

Perro Grande… Perro Pequeno by P.D. Eastman
Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever/El Mejor Libro de Palabras de Richard Scarry (Richard Scarry’s Best Books Ever) by Richard Scarry
Howie Goes Shopping/Fido va de compras (I Can Read! / Howie Series) (Spanish Edition) by Sara Henderson and Aaron Zenz
Easy Spanish Storybook: Goldilocks and the Three Bears: Ricitos de Oro y los Tres Osos (McGraw-Hill’s Easy Spanish Storybook) by Ana Lomba
Mi Mascota El Dragoncito (My Little Pet Dragon) (Spanish Edition) by Scott Gordon

My Name is Gabriela/Me llamo Gabriela (Bilingual): The Life of Gabriela Mistral/la vida de Gabriela Mistral by Monica Brown and John Parra
Un Beso en Mi Mano (The Kissing Hand) (Spanish Edition) by Audrey Penn, Ruth E. Harper and Nancy M. Leak
The Christmas Gift: El regalo de Navidad by Francisco Jimenez and Claire B. Cotts
Carlos and the Squash Plant / Carlos y la planta de calabaza by Jan Romero Stevens and Jeanne Stevens
The Three Little Javelinas/Los Tres Pequenos Jabalies: Bilingual by Susan Lowell

OUR FAVORITE INTERACTIVE BOOKS

We are big fans of reading at our house so the interactive books are some of our favorite apps because they give us the opportunity to make story time even more fun and my kids just love them. Most of these stories have the option to have someone read them aloud or have your child read them. My daughter, 6, is beginning to read and sometimes she will get tierd or loose interest in the book and not finish it, but when the book has movement and she can interect and participate she is more engaged and usually has no problem reading throught the whole story.  Most of our favorite interactive books are from Touchy Books these are really great quality and have lots of interaction and animation.


iStoryBooks – FREE
This is one of the most popular apps because it has so many books and it’s free. It has aproximately 20 books geared for children ages 2 through 8 and among these there are 3 books in Spanish: “El Cuervo, las Palomas y el Raton”, “El Zorro Azul” and “Cenicienta”. The first two books are also included in English. These books don’t have the option of  reading by yourself, they are all narrated and the text is pretty small. There is not much interaction besides the children being able to change the pages by sliding their finger across the screen.

Marina and the Little Green Boy – $0.99
Marina and the Little Green Boy (Marina y El Niño Verde) is one of my children’s favorites.  This is great bilingual story. You can change the text from Spanish to English by simply touching it. I like that you may choose to read in one language or the other so that there is not so much text in the page and kids don’t get confused. It allows for lots of interaction, the story is fun, the illustrations original and it is filled with silly sound effects and a catchy tune in the background.  There is no option to have this narrated which I consider to be it’s only drawback as smaller children who can not read yet don’t have the option of listening to the story but they will have just as much fun listening to the music, changing the pages and interacting with the characters.
Sleeping Beauty (La Bella Durmiente) – $1.59
This is my personal favorite, but maybe because I am such a romantic as it doesn’t have as much interaction and animation as others.  The illustrations are truly beautiful and I love the background music and the narrator’s voice.  The story uses simple words and is short enough while keeping true to the original, which makes it ideal for word recognition and beginning readers.  If your children like princesses this is wonderful app for the price.

 
My School Bus (Mi Bus Escolar) – $1.59
This interactive book has a fun story and some interaction. My children liked that you can feed the elephant at the zoo.  It doesn’t have the option to have the book narrated so you or your child must read it, which can be hard to do because the background songs are quite loud.  This is easily resolved by lowering the volume but then you will not be able to hear the sound effects and to do that you have to exit the Kid’s Place application.

 

I Want to be a Pirate (Yo Quiero Ser Pirata) – $1.99
This story has a narrated version that allows the children to follow along, focusing in vocabulary building and work recognition.  Each page allows the children to bring scenes to life and interact. This book is ideal for beginning readers as it uses simple words, large text and rhymes.  The story is fun and the illustrations colorful and lively.  This is one of our favorites and we specially enjoy the pirate song and the red parrot.

The Flautist of Hamelin HD (La Flautista de Hamelin) – $1.99
This interactive version of  the classic tale “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” has a couple of differences from the original story: the flautist is a woman and instead of mice there are cockroaches.  You can choose to have the story narrated or you or your child can read it. The illustrations are original and quite beautiful and the flute music is very nice. My children enjoy playing the flute on one of the pages. Even thought the story seems to be geared for small children the words used might be hard to understand for anyone who is not fluent in Spanish, which doesn’t make this book ideal for beginning readers.

Diana Dreams of Dinosaurs (Diana Sueña Con Dinosaurios) – $1.99
This is a fun story about a little girl who falls asleep with her dinosaur book. When she wakes up, everything appears to be normal except for the fact that she is surrounded by dinosaurs. This story includes text narration, has colorful illustrations and is moderately  interactive.

Puss in Boots (El Gato con Botas) –  $1.99
This is a cute and fun moderately interactive story with animations and sound effects.  My children love dressing the cat with different options for hats and boots but the cat doesn’t wear the outfit you pick on the rest of the story.  The story is a little short but overall a great little book.

 

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