image credit: listen, via flickr

The privileged few who have had a sneak preview of our products (available in our on-line store later this week and in bookshops all over Spain as of October 20th) may have noticed that all of the bilingual books we publish include the following text in a prominent location: Helpful hint for parents: If you are not a native speaker of the language you are trying to teach your child, you can find audio files with pronunciation aids, as well as many other helpful tips at www.bilingualreaders.com.

When Bilingual Readers was still just a glimmer of an idea, we began interviewing families from many different backgrounds to find out what they liked and disliked about many of the children’s books on the market. We also asked for suggestions on how to make our bilingual books as helpful as possible for parents and children alike. We got some amazing feedback, and we’ve worked hard to integrate many of your suggestions into our bilingual books. One of the most common requests we received was to provide audio pronunciation guides to help non-native speakers reinforce language skills with their children.

While our main focus is on getting parents to read to and with their children in both languages, we know that each family has different needs and will use these audio files in very different ways. Maybe you’re a Spanish family in Spain who wants to expose your children to English from an early age, but you want to make sure you’re pronouncing the words correctly. If you are a native speaker of the language you are trying to teach your child, you may want to use the audio files to expose them to different voices and accents. You may be a teacher who is looking for supplemental material to reinforce your students’ language skills. Whatever your situation, we hope you’ll be able to find what you need to get the most out of our books.

Of course you may be wondering why exactly we decided to include free on-line audio files for all of our titles instead of just including a cd with each product. We did briefly consider this option, but it was quickly discarded for several reasons. Firstly, it would increase production costs, which would inevitably lead to a price increase, and we have truly done our best to keep our prices down so that as many families as possible can enjoy our products. Another reason we decided to provide this material for free on our website is because we believe it will be a helpful resource to many families who, for whatever reason, may not be able to afford the luxury of purchasing our books. Finally, we believe that sometimes you have to give a little to get a little. We have learned so much from so many, and the free audio files and other complementary materials we include on our website are just one way of saying thank you to all of our readers who are doing their best to give the gift of bilingualism to their children.

If you haven’t listened in yet, just go the Media Library section of our website and click on Audio Archive to find a selection of pronunciation aids for our first two products Easy Alphabet!/¡Abecedario fácil! and Two Little Libros: Sea Animals/Animales del mar and Jungle Animals/Animales de la selva. You can also download the audio files for each book in our on-line catalogue. Have fun listening!

• Helps children learn the alphabet in English and Spanish.
• Teaches basic vocabulary in English and Spanish.
• One year and up.
• Free audio files and extra activities available on bilingualreaders.com.
• Develops early literacy skills.
• Thick sturdy cards with rounded corners.
• Includes a guide for parents with games for children of all ages (This product grows with your children!).

I’m afraid I’ve always been a bit of a summer addict. When most people are busy complaining about the heat and hiding out in air conditioned buildings, I’ve always been happy to break out my little sundresses, coat myself in sunscreen (a girl’s got to protect her skin after all) and enjoy all that fabulous sunshine. So after waving goodbye to my parents at the Madrid airport last week and noticing that it’s no longer light outside when my alarm clock rings at 7:01 am, I have to admit it would be very tempting for me to develop a case of the post vacation blues. And then I remember something that makes me almost want to speed the whole end of summer/start of fall process along: our new (and first) catalogue of bilingual books and games is set to launch in just six weeks!

While it may be the end of summer now, this fall is the start of something big for Bilingual Readers, and I can’t wait to see the books we’ve been working so hard on for so long in the hands of the bilingual families they were created for! That’s one of the many reasons we were so excited to see our first complete sample copies of Easy Alphabet!/¡Abecedario fácil! arrive from the printers last Friday. Our hands were trembling as we opened up the box and examined each item in this bilingual early literacy kit one at a time. Then yesterday we received another package from the printers with samples of Two Little Libros: Jungle Animals and Sea Animals. We could hardly believe it ourselves, but both the books and the kit turned out exactly how we envisioned them, so we just had to post a few pictures to give you all a sneak peak of what you can look forward to in October. We hope you love them as much as we do!