Margarita y Margaret

Beginning Spanish Readers

$7.00

SKU: 978-0688147341 Greenwillow Books

Margarita and Margaret by Lyn Reiser. This book celebrates the power of being bilingual and knowing two languages. Talking about that power provides an excellent way to get a new class excited about Spanish. On the left, Margaret (carrying toy rabbit Susan) and her mother come to the park, though the child protests that `There is no one to play with'; on the right are Margarita, her mother, and a cat named Susana holding the identical conversation--in Spanish. They meet, and while the mothers (assuming that their language difference is a barrier) sit facing outward on the same bench, the little girls gesture, converse, and play with their toys, each picking up a few words of the other's language and parting as friends--with the mothers now smiling at each other. Constructed with unusual imagination and care, a bilingual story that makes a perfect first bridge from either language to the other, with simple but expressive art that will help define the words for new readers. 32 pages, paperback.