Seven Favorite Spanish Books for Toddlers

Posted by Habbi Habbi Guest Contributor on


In this post: Learn about my favorite Spanish books for toddlers and babies - including board books, sound books (musical & read-aloud), and vocabulary books. I am of the belief that we can never have too many books, especially if I can find great Spanish ones. As a prior teacher and current bilingual mom, books for me are an opportunity to explore language through both spoken and written word (and with pictures to aid understanding). 

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Table of Contents:

  1. Board Books: Spanish versions of English children’s classics 
  2. Sound Books: Spanish sing-along and bilingual read-aloud books
  3. Vocabulary Books: Books that teach Spanish Vocabulary

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Spanish Board Books

There are so many great board books available that it’s hard to choose! I personally love classic children’s storybooks, since some toddlers may be somewhat familiar with the stories and can easily follow along, even if they have no prior Spanish exposure. Here are our family’s top three Spanish-version board books.

La oruga muy hambrienta | Spanish or Bilingual

You can’t go wrong with Eric Carle! So many young children love his books and this Spanish version of probably his most popular book will expose little ones to lots of basic Spanish vocabulary from food to numbers to days of the week. Since we have read it more than several times, I like to leave those key vocabulary words for my daughter to fill in the blank and practice her speaking/reading skills in Spanish.


Buenas noches luna | Spanish or Bilingual

This wonderful bedtime story is calming and soothing and also introduces your little one to common Spanish vocabulary terms from around the house. The fact that the pictures and phrases are separated page by page makes it even more accessible for early learners to distinguish meaning and connect objects with their Spanish names. It’s near and dear to my heart because it is one of my mother’s favorite books and she bought it for me in Spanish so that I could share it with my daughter as she did with me (in English).


Chica Chica Bum Bum | Spanish

This book is great both for silliness and for learning! The fun storyline of an alphabet climbing up a tree and then falling out in a big tumble always gives my daughter the giggles. It’s also a great way for her to learn the Spanish alphabet. They even included ñ in the Spanish version, which I love.

Spanish Sound Books

Sound books are a great way to introduce your toddler to audio input in Spanish. Whether they talk or read or sing out loud, your little one has the opportunity to explore Spanish independently with just the push of a button (or the tap of a Wand!).

Habbi Habbi | Words, Phrases, Sentences, Stories

We love our Habbi Habbi books! We have them both in Spanish and Chinese and are adding a few in French, Korean, and Hindi as well. Besides screen-free audio input in the target languages (huge win by itself), I also really appreciate that these are the kind of books that can grow with children. We got our first book when my daughter was two and fast forward a couple years and we still use them regularly and still discover new “hidden” phrases as we tap around and explore. From independent play, reading together, car trips, and more, we use our Habbi Habbi books in so many ways and in so many places.

Coco Learns Spanish | Music sing-along books

There are three volumes in this fun sing-along sound book series. The pages are colorfully illustrated and include lyrics in both English and Spanish, with buttons that match the illustrations for each song. Each book has 3 traditional songs and 3 translated versions of English children’s songs, which is nice because you will recognize some tunes while learning some new ones too! We have all three and pretty frequently listen to them during bedtime reading.

Spanish Vocabulary Books for Toddlers

Besides story books and talking books, we also love books that are aimed specifically at learning and expanding vocabulary. These two picture dictionaries offer colorful images that are perfect to point and name objects or play short games of eye spy to practice speaking and listening comprehension in Spanish.

My First Spanish Word Book | Bilingual

This book is a durable bilingual picture dictionary with page spreads organized by subject, like family and friends, clothes, actions, and more. With over 30 objects per spread and 10 spreads, there’s upwards of 300 Spanish words to learn. When my daughter was younger we would mostly look and point and I would read the words out loud, and now I like to ask her questions in Spanish about the pages, like “which animals are blue?” or “what would you pick to wear today?”


Big Book of Spanish Words | Spanish (with bilingual word list)

This Spanish picture dictionary is labeled all in Spanish - but has a bilingual word list at the end of the book. It is packed with one thousand vocabulary words arranged by topics covering everything from around the home to around the world. What I especially appreciate is the inclusion of common adjectives and verbs to take communication to the next level. I try to use this book to help my daughter learn common nouns as well as a resource to find words to describe an object or what she is doing in more detail. For example, it is not just a blue ball, but a big plastic blue ball.

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      Check out more bilingual resources from Habbi Habbi 

      We have lots more (fun stuff!) here at Habbi Habbi. You can explore our free resources such as bilingual printables, resource blog, and audiobooks. Of course, we also have our much loved magical Reading Wandbilingual bookspuzzles & flashcards. Our tools are currently available in Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, French, Korean, and Hindi.

      About our lovely guest contributor: Kelly

      Kelly Helbach is an English-Spanish bilingual parent raising an English-Spanish-Mandarin trilingual child with her English-Mandarin bilingual spouse. She has a passion for education and literacy and language development, with a Master’s Degree in Reading Development and experience as both an English-only and Spanish-English dual language Kindergarten teacher. Nowadays, she stays home with her daughter and enjoys playing video games when there’s a bit of spare time.

       

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