Cali's Fun Bilingual Tales: 5-Minute Stories in Spanish and English

by Jorja Colley, Vicky Lommatzsch (illustrator)

Genres: Childrens

128 pages, Paperback

Published June 18, 2024

Reviews

[Literary Redhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

A colorful book with 15 5-minute stories in English and Spanish helps readers 6 to 9 years learn bilingual skills. A great resource for home and school!

[Geraldine Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Net Gallery for the advance copy of this set of short stories.

Writing for children is difficult, and writing a bilingual book for children is extra challenging, but this book of short stories was a delight. I loved the vocabulary tables at the start of each story, because even though I speak, read and write Spanish, there were a couple of new words for me. I also thought the side-by side format helped me check my understanding if needed while not interfering with the flow of the story. I enjoyed that each sweet story had a positive message and the simple illustrations enhanced the telling. My favorite, An Outing with the Grandparents, edged out a mischievous bunny because who doesn't love antiques.... But I don't want to give anything away.

[Valerie Contreras · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Net Galley for providing this ARC.

I loved this book ! My 8 year old brother and me found the stories to be cute and funny. They would make great bedtime stories especially because they are short. This is a great book for any bilingual child to use as a tool to improve their Spanish or English. It even helped me practice my Spanish literacy.

My favorite story from this book was “Un Regalo para Mia”. It was heartwarming to see a sibling relationship that my brother and me could relate to. Not only are the stories entertaining to read but they also include some type of lesson to learn for kids. I will definitely be picking up physical copies of this book on its release day!

[Maritere Rodriguez Bellas · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a bilingual children's book author, it makes me so happy that bilingual kids have many options to practice reading in English and in Spanish. Cali's Fun Bilingual Tales 5-minute stories are fun and engaging, fostering bilingual education and language pride. I particularly like that the stories cover all kinds of relevant topics for children: school, abuelos, hobbies, vacations, bedtime and many more. Cali, the capybara is a sweet main character as are his friends Julia the Jaguar and Lukas the Toucan. Super cute illustrations by Vicky Lommatzsch. For children ages 6-9, it is a perfect bilingual book for the classroom, home libraries and local libraries too! Brava, Jorja Colley!

[Nicole Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a fun experience for my 7 year old daughter and I! She read the English version and I read the Spanish version.

I took a few years in Spanish so I knew most of the words, but I did learn some new ones as well! My daughter was entranced by her mama reading Spanish and had lots of fun.

The pictures are wonderfully made and the stories themselves each teach a lesson every time.

This book is a must to introduce either English or Spanish into your children’s household!

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved how we got to see the side-by-side translations in this book, as well as key words listed at the beginning of each story. This is a great tool for young children learning a new language or bilingual learners.

Thank you to NetGalley, Jorja Colley, and Zeitgeist | Z Kids for the opportunity to read and review this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Kristel Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very fun book. Each story takes only about 5 minutes, which is perfect for reading to my kids before they go to bed.
The Spanish version is very good too. It uses real Spanish expressions and they are not just translated directly from English.
I totally recommend it.

[Mariah Arango · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book to read to bilingual kids.

[gg44 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very useful book, this presents its simple stories of capybara life in Spanish and English, with the tales nicely split into short, snappy paragraphs that sit side by side. Each has a small glossary and translation guide to start with, and from then on we're in the world of the stories, seeing Cali as a friendly and eager beastie, hanging with friends, getting annoyed by the weather, coming to fun conclusions about what he's best at, and generally living a home- and school-life in very recognisable fashion. OK, too many of the stories just grind to a halt, once a kind of moral has been hinted at, or a quip made, but the pieces are fine enough, and the language lesson is not to be sniffed at. Decent artworks dress things up so the page is not just text, and the whole has a good level of appeal. A strong four stars.






For some reason a different book from the same publisher had this same ISBN, and I reviewed that first. As a result, whatever it actually is, I ought to keep the 2-star review for that extant, in case people turn up here as I did for the wrong reasons:-

Hmmm… Someone is "peddling" on a bike, although there's no sign of him actually going round selling anything, when a tiny pebble causes him to crash, and damage his knee. The following plot is what happens on a cellular level as the wound gets patched up, bacteria get kept out – and all the immune system's various cells turn up to the scene and sort things out. This wants to be a friendly, early primer to the immune system (and it wants to be a part of a series, as well, somehow) but it isn't great. The text tries to give every component of the system a trendy, hip-hoppy, abbreviated name, but it's quite often got the timing wrong as to when to state the full name, when to abbreviate it, when to define it… So copious 'characters' and types turn up, look weird, and we're left to piece together what we should be learning. Other books MUST have done this better.