Today’s book recommendations are 2 new Spanish books and 2 new bilingual books. Of course, as a Spanish teacher I am ecstatic with this book haul. These best new books are worth adding to your home or classroom library.
Best New Spanish & Bilingual Children’s Books
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using the link, I will receive a small monetary compensation. Thank you! A big thank you to Publisher Spotlight and Simon and Schuster for sending me these books my way, all opinions and reviews, as always, are my own!
Los muégano
Los muégano by author and illustrator Jaque Jours
Families large or small will love this book especially if you’re always doing things together. Using the muégano (a sticky Mexican sweet treat) as characters, Jaque brings us a warm, gently funny story about independence and learning to let go, without ever losing the closeness that makes a family a family. It’s a perfect read for those moments when your child is starting to want a little more space of their own, and a great conversation starter about what “staying close” really means as kids grow up. The illustrations will take you to a Mexican home, a museum and the roundabout in Mexico City. This is a sweet story about family and growing up.
Un mapa para Palestina
Un mapa para Palestina by author Maysa Odeh and illustrated by Aliaa Betawi
Layla has a school assignment: find her family’s country of origin on a map. But no matter how hard she looks, she can’t find Palestine. Confused, she turns to her grandfather, grandmother, and mother, and each of them shows her their homeland from a different perspective, helping her understand her people’s history and her own place in the world.
This is a necessary book, told with enormous tenderness and filled with references to Palestinian food, poetry, music, and traditions. It’s a beautiful way to open conversations about identity, belonging, and what it means to carry a place inside you, even when it doesn’t appear on a map. A must-have for your home or school library.
Un cofre de palabras/ A Chest Full of Words
Un cofre de palabras/ A Chest Full of Words by Rebecca Gugger
Óscar digs up a big chest, and when he opens it, he’s disappointed to find it’s full of… words. What kind of treasure is that?! But he quickly discovers that using new words is actually fun, and before long, the chest is empty and Óscar is at a loss for words, until his neighbor Louise teaches him that words can be found anywhere, anytime.
This bilingual, playful picture book by Rebecca Gugger is packed with vocabulary and is perfect for inspiring kids to play with language and discover that the most interesting words are all around them, if they know how to look. This book is a playful celebration of language and words one that bilingual readers will absolutely love.
My Animalitos A Frida Kahlo Story / Mis animalitos un cuentito de Frida Kahlo
My Animalitos A Frida Kahlo Story / Mis animalitos un cuentito de Frida Kahlo by Monica Brown and illustrated by John Parra
This bilingual board book, inspired by Frida’s love for her animals, is a story about positive affirmations. Toddlers will learn to identify the different animals Frida kept as pets throughout her life, in both English and Spanish. Each animal also represents one of Frida’s many characteristics from her strength and independence to her profound intelligence, with every page reading like an affirmation for little ones to repeat as they grow.
