Short Stories in Spanish for Beginners, Volume 2

by Olly Richards

Short Stories in Spanish for Beginners, Volume 2 offers eight more unconventional and captivating stories for adult and young adult learners. Carefully written to provide a sense of achievement and feeling of progress when reading, these stories will help you expand your vocabulary and improve your comprehension in a natural way. From science fiction to fantasy to crime thrillers, Short Stories in Spanish for Beginners, Volume 2 is designed to make learning a new language easy and enjoyable. Volume 1 and Volume 2 can be used interchangeably. They are perfect for self-study or classroom use.

For high beginner and low-intermediate language learners.

Genres: Spanish Literature, Language, Short Stories, Fiction

190 pages, Paperback

Published September 27, 2022

Reviews

[Chiara Loriaux · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for learning Spanish

[Stephanie]

This is a tough one to rate because the goal of this collection was more about becoming more proficient in a language, rather than for enjoyment. It's not entirely fair to judge the quality of the stories for that reason, because it did its job. That being said, they were a mixed bag. I kinda liked the first one, because it reminded me of Nancy Drew. I hated the last one, because by that point, I was sick of the "twists" for no reason, which most of the stories had. (it didn't help that I outright hated the twist, to begin with). Everything else was somewhere in between

[Claire Sager · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’re looking to brush up on your Spanish, this series is for you! I would say you do need a good baseline understanding of Spanish for this book. The stories are the perfect length and the questions/summaries at the end of each chapter help you to confirm that you’ve understood what you’ve read!

[Alizee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Handy to practice Spanish comprehension and expand vocabulary

[Rebecca Hanrahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent tool for learning Spanish. I’m excited to challenge myself with the next level up 🤓

[Sienna Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐️

[Janis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short Stories in Spanish Volume 2 could be a good practice resource for developing reading comprehension in Spanish. Some of the stories are goofy, but better than Volume 1.

[Teri-K · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy the stories in this book as much as those in the first volume. They really seemed to lack any conflict or forward motion, though a couple were interesting. Still, it's an excellent way to practice reading Spanish and I know I'll reread this several more times, at least.

NB - The two books are not sequential, the reading level is about the same, so start where ever you want. But I suggest volume 1, it was more fun to read.

[Siobhan Markwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second volume of beginners stories managed to keep up the reading interest of the first with stories about subjects as varied as crazy blind dates, AI developers, rock bands in 60s New York and eccentric seamen from 17th century Havana. They all have a satisfying ending too and stretch your Spanish if you're about A2 level while being easy to understand. Really recommend them and they're planned to repeat common words and expressions so you start to remember them.

[Eva Mall · Rating 3 out of 5]

For sure a nice way to practice a language, the summaries and vocab lists are a good tool for that.

Unfortunately, the stories were not enjoyable to read: not believable and had bad middle school vibes. It may be part due to the simple language used (what is of course good for a beginners book), but I’m pretty sure that you can tell an interesting story with easy vocabulary as well (really: a century long war ended just because someone brings back the child that ran away?)

[Liisi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Same rating as for volume 1. Some stories were quite nice, others had plot twists I didn’t like, or I simply found the stories uninteresting. I also wondered how some words ended up in the glossary and others did not, for me personally the selection was often wrong. I appreciate these books as a learning tool, but I wouldn’t exactly call it “fun” - it’s better to enjoy native content instead as soon as you can.

[paige · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took 3 years of Spanish in high school, but I realized that I had forgotten so much of it so I picked this up at the library to review. The stories were pretty interesting and easy to follow along with. By the end of the book, I felt a lot more confident in my Spanish vocab and reading comprehension. I’d like to read volume 1 and some of Olly Richards other Spanish books in the future!

[Ollie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. The stories were good, some of them even surprised me at the endings. I love having the vocab list, and the comprehension questions, the summary is pretty helpful too. It's nice because even though I may not understand the specific words, I'm getting the jist of the story, and that's the important thing.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good book to read for building your Spanish reading and comprehending skills. Paired with a notebook to write down the new vocab in each chapter, it will help you to expand your Spanish vocabulary. Highly recommend

[Laraharding · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this way of learning a language. I've been rereading thos book and audiobook together. Although my speaking isn't great, my comprehension is improving well and I feel I'm just relaxing. It doesn't feel like work.

[Magpie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lindsay bookclub 2023 ✅

[Luke Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smashed it - would recommend. Good A2 - B1 level comprehension

[Harold Perkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for learning spanish as a beginner - you need to understand conjugations and have a basic understanding of spanish grammar.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cuentos simples, pero una buena manera de practicar mi español y de aprender vocabulario nuevo

[Tapesh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book 📚

[Addie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mucho mejor que el primero

[George Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the stories and the format! Recommend for anyone learning Spanish

[Leland William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very easy reading but with enough new vocab to keep it interesting

[Luisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book to learn spanish if you also enjoy reading