Today we’re celebrating because our latest book, Cuentos del mundo, is finally in bookstores all over Spain. Cuentos del mundo is the first volume in a series of bilingual stories from around the world, with highlighted vocabulary lists and practical exercises at the end of the book. Learning English has never been so fun!

This collection is a bit different from our previous books in that it’s geared toward English language learners of all ages. So what made us decide to go out on a limb and develop a separate collection just for English language learners? To help you understand our motivation, we’ve decided to let you in on the making of Cuentos del mundo!

We first came across the author and translator of these short stories, Sofía Sánchez Adalid and William Lyon, through the series of bilingual stories they publish every month in the newspaper 20Minutos, with illustrations by Ruta Viruta. As a bilingual publisher, we were very tempted by the idea of publishing an anthology of bilingual stories from around the world, so we got started on this project right away. We met with the authors and discussed the best way to focus the series and how we could help families to make the most of the bilingual stories and their illustrations.

We finally decided on a system that highlights specific vocabulary words and expressions from each story and later invites readers to use the exercises at the end of the book to practice what they’ve learned. Of course we don’t want to give too many secrets away, but the result is an amazing new resource designed to help English language learners improve their English through stories.* It’s also a great collection of folk tales from around the world that will open readers’ minds to new experiences.

While we were busy editing the stories, illustrator Ruta Viruta was hard at work on finding the perfect illustrations for each story and designing a cover which reflects the spirit of families reading together. After many, many hours of hard work, we were thrilled to see printed copies of our newest Bilingual Readers production. And now we’re even more thrilled to see Cuentos del mundo in bookshops, ready to be discovered by story enthusiasts and language learners alike. Whether you’re looking to improve your language skills or just want to read some great stories, we hope you’ll love Cuentos del mundo!

And don’t forget to let us know what you think about this and any of our other books by writing to info@bilingualreaders.com or visiting us on Facebook and Twitter.

*This method is effective for both English and Spanish language learners, but the activities at the end of the book are just for English learners.