Short Stories in Spanish for Beginners: Read for pleasure at your level, expand your vocabulary and learn Spanish the fun way!

by Olly Richards

An unmissable collection of eight unconventional and captivating short stories for young and adult learners."I love Olly's work - and you will too!" - Barbara Oakley, PhD, Author of New York Times bestseller A Mind for NumbersShort Stories in Spanish for Beginners has been written especially for students from beginner to intermediate level, designed to give a sense of achievement, and most importantly - enjoyment! Mapped to A2-B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference, these eight captivating stories will both entertain you, and give you a feeling of progress when reading.What does this book give you?· Eight stories in a variety of exciting genres, from science fiction and crime to history and thriller - making reading fun, while you learn a wide range of new vocabulary· Controlled language at your level, including the 1000 most frequent words, to help you progress confidently· Authentic spoken dialogues, to help you learn conversational expressions and improve your speaking ability· Pleasure! It's much easier to learn a new language when you're having fun, and research shows that if you're enjoying reading in a foreign language, you won't experience the usual feelings of frustration - 'It's too hard!' 'I don't understand!'· Accessible grammar so you learn new structures naturally, in a stress-free wayCarefully curated to make learning a new language easy, these stories include key features that will support and consolidate your progress, including· A glossary for bolded words in each text· A bilingual word list· Full plot summary· Comprehension questions after each chapter. As a result, you will be able to focus on enjoying reading, delighting in your improved range of vocabulary and grasp of the language, without ever feeling overwhelmed or frustrated. From science fiction to fantasy, to crime and thrillers, Short Stories in Spanish for Beginners will make learning Spanish easy and enjoyable.

Genres: Spanish Literature, Fiction, Short Stories, Language, Audiobook, Education, Contemporary

242 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 4, 2018

Reviews

[Paul Weiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Sigo viviendo aventuras porque así es mi vida. Me gusta viajar y explorar el mundo.”

Y cuando viajo, me gusta poder decir “A beer, please”, “a glass of the house red wine”, “thank you”, o “May I have the bill” en el idioma local “porque así es mi vida”, porque es la correcta cosa por hacer. Así que leo libros como SHORT STORIES IN SPANISH. Bueno, más simplemente, me gusta muchísimo aprender los idiomas.

SHORT STORIES IN SPANISH incluye ocho cuentos diferentes - ciencia ficción, fantasía, crimen, thriller, aventuras y interés general – con un pequeño vocabulario para las palabras más difíciles y algunas preguntas para probar la comprensión del lector. Cada historia es un poco más difícil que la anterior y, por supuesto, unas son mejores que las otras. SHORT STORIES IN SPANISH es un excelente recurso para los estudiantes de español a les que gustaría mejorar sus habilidades desde el nivel A1 hasta el A2 o B1.

Definitivamente recomendado.

Paul Weiss

[Mikael · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's painfully obvious that the author is not a writer. The stories are dull and lack imagination. Thus, "Learn Spanish the fun way" is most definitely an overstatement. However, as a learning resource I do like the premise of the book. The helpful summaries and highlighting of possibly difficult vocabulary, as well as giving a translation of that word (or phrase) in the current context, is a really good idea! Though sometimes the vocabulary help seemed very random; highlighting words that literally has the same significance in English.

I understand that to make short stories for beginner you can't make them super complicated/intriguing with nuances and so on. However, I wish the author trusted in the capabilities of the readers a little bit more, not language wise but their ability to put together the story in their head, and maybe spent a little more time developing the characters as well as making the stories more complex as you got further in the book.

I think I would have enjoy this so much more if the author had instead of writing his own stories had instead opted to use already famous / good short stories and then adding this "learning" layer on top. I do realize this comes with a few problems on its own.

I liked the book as a learning material, I just wish the author had put in more literary effort to make the stories into stories.

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este es un muy bueno libro especialmente para personas quieren a aprender español. Solamente problema es las historias fueran escriben en español de España. En el Estados Unidos más los hispánicos de México o Centro América. Voy a recomendar este libro.

[سلطان الشريف · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a great book to learn Spanish language, it contains several stories each story divided in 3 chapters to make it easy to understand it. Also at the end of each chapter there is a summary to see if you understood the overall idea of the chapter (the main idea of this chapter of the story 💡). In addition, the chapter contains a list of few vocabulary that could help you understand what those Spanish words mean in English. Saying that I need to mention an important matter you need to have a good base of Spanish vocabularies to start with this book. In my situation I have started learning Spanish language using app called duolingo for more than a year now, it has helped me a lot in understanding most of the stories in this book. To be frank I still used translator to translate some words even though the majority of these words I learned before but still not everything you can remember until you practice it in a daily base.
In this book you would be tested after each chapter with a multiple choice questions in order to know how good you understood the story.
By the way I liked all the stories in this book, they are simple and nice stories. It is a great way to start reading in Spanish language.

[Ramona Mead · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great tool for taking your beginner Spanish to the next level. I definitely felt a sense of accomplishment when I finished each chapter and got the questions right! The big downside is the stories are silly and not as enjoyable as I'd hoped. They definitely feel like they're out of a kid's early reader, and this feels like a text book. I was looking for a more casual reading experience that didn't necessarily feel like I was supposed to be learning as I read. I'll certainly keep this on hand and revisit when my Spanish skills improve. I already have the second book in this series so I'll give it a try. At least I know what to expect this time.

[Andrés Escudero · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book. I credit this book, alongside the audiobook, with getting me over that advanced-beginner hump when I was learning Spanish. It boosted my confidence and really solidified the idea of learning through immersion, and in particular through stories. I've since reached fluency in Spanish, but I will always look back to this book as one of the key milestones.

[soph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yes they are easy to understand and practise your Spanish but god I found the stories hard to get through simply because for me they were awful and a little ridiculous in places. There were also a couple of errors in there which won’t really help your learning.

[Andrew Razanauskas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un buen libro para aprender y entender español. En el libro la gente hablan en varios formas del idioma que ayuda mi aprendieno. Despuès de cada capítulo es una secciòn por vocabulario. Me encanta. Yo creo que es un problema pequeña, en todos las capítulos unos hombres son muy fuertes, son exploradores, en casi todos son características primeras. Yo quiero leer sobre más mujeres con partes más grande.

[Daniel Hicklin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taken me all year to read these but they’ve been GREAT for seeing vocab and sentence structure above my pay grade! Will continue to re-read over and over :)

[Simone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Por fin! He acabado de leer este libro de cuentos interesantes.
Uz to bude pomalu 10 let, co jsem se spaninou po statnicich sekla. A ted v zari se k ni po te dlouhe pauze zase vratila. Jedu od zacatku, ale tak uplne ne, zejo. Pamatuju si hodne. A tohle je tedy prvni kniha, kterou jsem na sve oprášené cestě za ‘proficiency’ prelouskala.

Úroveň A2-B1
Španělsko - anglický slovník za každou kapitolou
Otázky týkající se porozumění textu

[Noortje · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me gustó leer este libro porque era una manera fácil para estudiar español. Sobre todo las palabras con la traducción eran útiles. Pero creo que los cuentos eran extraños y solo había unos que me gustó.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good practice for reading in Spanish. However, the Castilian words and use of vosotros made it less useful for the Americas.

[Moran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book that encouraged learning. The stories are interesting and provided enough pull to keep me engaged all the way to the end. They also represented a variety of different genres.

The best thing about this book is that it provided me with a confidence boost with regards to my Spanish skills. I feel ready to tackle more challenging books in Spanish (but will probably suffice with just getting the next level in this series).

[Melissa McIvor · Rating 4 out of 5]

No creo que este libro es para "beginners" porque necesitas entender el tiempo pasado y el tiempo futuro así que lo recomendé para personas en el nivel A2/B1. Le he dado cuatro estrellas porque disfuté de esta forma divertida/diferente de aprender y fue bueno aprender más vocabulario, pero las historias son un poco básicas.

[Sinead · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very weird stories, but a good way to practice.

[Liana Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

El escribiendo no era muy bien pero es buena práctica del Español. Y yo necesito practicar. Mucho.

[Jason Berger · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, definitely not "learn[ing] Spanish the fun way". While it might be a useful resource for studying, it was not enjoyable AT ALL.
So, what I disliked:
1. The stories: the plots were horribly weird and honestly boring. Olly Richards is advertising his books as fun and different from textbook-style learning. But to be honest, these silly stories reminded me of the stories I had to read in English classes (German is my native language) when I was a child. I had to fight against not just quitting, because, honestly, the stories were annoying to me because of how tiresome reading was.

2. You just feel that he's going for quantity over quality with his books. Publishing more than 30 books in several languages is one thing - publishing good books is another. There were several mistakes throughout the book. Even changes in character names (which probably happened because most of the stories were adapted from other languages and names of people and places changed accordingly). In theory, vocabulary above your level is explained at the end of each chapter. Interestingly he would sometimes introduce a "new" word two chapters after it's been first used. There were at least two doubled sentences...

While this book is indeed a possible resource for studying - it's not really fun. The stories are not interesting and you just feel that the author did not work too diligently in the making.

If you are looking for useful AND fun reading in a new language, maybe go for adaptations of works from original authors in your goal language. At least for Spanish-German and Spanish-English there's a lot of adaptations of original works, with more complex and interesting plots, which are adapted to your level of knowledge, giving translations for vocab that's above your level. For people speaking German there's wonderful Reclam adaptations which help you read original texts and providing vocab at the bottom of the page. Also, there exist a lot of books that juxtapose original text and translation, which can help you to learn by reading. From my experience, starting do read these kinds of books is possible at early A2 level and should become easy once you get into B1.

When I was starting to learn Spanish, I also had read books similar to this one which used everyday stories for vocab learning (by the German publisher PONS). These stories made sense and were much more bearable. So even for this exact style of book, there's probably better alternatives.

If you're not bothered by dull, weird and boring stories, you can also go for this book and it will help you, anyway.

[neem · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone at an A2 Spanish level with a goal of *eventually* becoming fluent, this mini book is a good level for me to be able to read confidently + expand my vocabulary without having to stop and use Google translate for help! Each chapter (a short 2-3 pages) has a glossary at the end that contains around 15-20 new words from that chapter, plus little pop quizzes between chapters. Super cute

Note- As you reach the end of the book the stories do get more complex, like a B1 level, so I wouldn’t say the book is for “absolute beginners” like it’s marketed. To call it “low-intermediate” is definitely more appropriate

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was fun! I’ve seen reviews say the stories weren’t believable, but….of course not! They’re mostly fantasy stories. Which is part of what makes them fun. There were a couple of stories that ended on a cliffhanger which I found a bit unsatisfying, but other than that I enjoyed it!

Seemed a little advanced for a *complete* beginner, but it seemed appropriate for anyone with good foundational knowledge.

[Kristin Hirsch · Rating 3 out of 5]

A difficult book to rate....I liked the layout where key vocabulary was defined for you in each chapter and mini quizzes let me know how well I did (or didn't) understand the story. That being said, the stories weren't engaging at all. Although with beginner vocabulary the author probably didn't have much to work with.

[echo]

tu wyjątkowo nie napiszę po polsku:

con este libro estoy celebrando el final del primer mes de aprender español; no puedo llamarlo una gran literatura (por eso no lo juzgo), pero lo he entendido y esto me alegra más de lo que puedo expresar, porque ahora tengo frente a mí el nuevo mundo entero de libros y no puedo esperar para estar listo para leer algo más difícil

[Solomon · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐ - Liked It

Read 5 of the 8 short stories. This is a fun and encouraging way to practice your Spanish skills. The only downside is that because of the simplicity it also tends to have fairly basic plot lines.

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Spanish reader that was easy enough that I could follow the story. The stories were okay, not too exciting but entertaining enough considering they had to be fairly straight forward. Good practice for my learning journey.

[Jad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha gustaba esto libro. Es perfecto para el mi nivel. Las historias eran interesante y fácil a entender. Tienes que hacer estudiado un po de español antes que puedas leer esto libro. Son contento de comprarlo. Compre lo mismo libro in italiano, y describí que las historias eran igual :) esto autor usa las mismas historias in todas las idiomas, por el es muy económico:) lo leeré una otra ves para entender mejor.

[Jan Duin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Está bien para aprender a leer en español, pero las historias son un poco aburridas.

[Sienna Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐️

[Samuel Stoličný · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd probably recommend it if you're learning Spanish. It's an easy read, and each chapter has a vocab section at the end that explains the harder words. The stories can be annoying sometimes, with the most cringe plot twists ever, but they're entertaining enough.

[Emma Hatcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Estaba un libro muy bien. Mi nivel en Español es bajo, y este libro no fue muy difícil para mi. Me gustan mucho los cuentos simples. ¡Buen método para practicar!

[White Cat reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is suitable for anyone between A2 to B1 level. Probably more towards B2. It was really helpful with exercises after each story.

[Olivia Embry]

i killed that