Our Favorite Bilingual Pictionary

As you build up your Spanish library make sure you have this one: Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever / El mejor libro de palabras de Richard Scarry. It is a must for for every Spanish/English-speaking family with little ones. In fact, I just walked over to the computer here with it, and Janio gave me an extremely hopeful look: it is one book he always asks for.

If you aren’t familiar with Richard Scarry, you are in for a treat. He has wonderful little stories, but even better are the detailed, imaginative drawings. He manages to pack every page with interesting illustrations without being overwhelming.

Many Spanish language resources are full of Spanish picture dictionaries and flashcards, but I think it’s much better to have real literature in your hands. Most of the dictionaries’ illustrations that I’ve seen are lacking or too busy. This may not be a dictionary, technically, but it’s much more engaging and worth your money than most illustrated dictionaries.

I love this book because even though my Spanish vocabulary is fairly extensive, as my son gets older there are more and more words I realize I don’t know. (Crane? Windmill? Boxcar?) We pretty much camp out on the trucks, trains, and farm pages right now, but hopefully I’ll get to study words for the grocery store and house one day too.  If you are wanting to teach your baby or toddler Spanish, but feel nervous about a limited vocabulary, this should help tremendously.