My Colors/ Mis Colores

Rating:
Summary: Error-filled
Review: As other reviewers have noted, there are problems with this book, despite its laudable intent. In short, it is doubtful that the author speaks fluent Spanish herself, and it seems as if she simply opened a Spanish-English dictionary to create the book.

For example, for 'azul/blue' she displays a fish, which she calls a "pescado." As any second-year Spanish student can tell you, the animal is a 'pez' whereas prepared food is called 'pescado' (literally, "that which has been fished"). Also, on the back cover she writes "¡Recolecte todos los libres en la serie!" (Collect all the books in the series). The verb "recolectar" means "to gather", not "to collect" as in a collection (she needed to use "coleccionar")

As a Spanish professor, I commend her good intentions with this book, but I cannot recommend this book until the errors are corrected.

Rating:
Summary: Great way to teach colors in English & Spanish
Review: At first, I resisted purchasing books from this series because I wanted an actual picture of whatever was being described, like in the "My First Board Book" series by DK Publishing. However, I believe that "Mis Colores" is an excellent way to teach colors, and succeeds in one place where the Board Book Series (and some others) fail. I do not like when colors and shapes are combined, for example, "red square."

In regards to another reviewer's comments, my understanding of Spanish is that the article is placed before the noun, so "el pescado" is correct and just "pescado" is not. This is also another detail that I have noticed many bilingual board books lack.

Rating:
Summary: A great series for early language acquisition
Review: I have been using this entire series with my son since he was born, and he is now 14 months. He loves the pictures and turning the pages. The books use the format of one word per page and it gives both the English and Spanish form of the word. This is a great series for early language acquisition.

I am a bilingual Spanish/English speaker. My ethnic background is Cuban and Mexican. It is quite correct to use the article in front of the Spanish version of the word and not the English for one simple reason. English words are all gender neutral, while Spanish words all have gender, which the article helps you identify. The color spelling also changes based on gender, so you must know the gender in order to know how to say the color. For example, la manzana es roja, even though the color is rojo.

Also, cafe and marron are both correct for brown.