See What Makes These Interactive Spanish Books Great!
Books are always essential resources in language learning – regardless of the language.
Reading to babies and toddlers can be a challenge, though! There are times when long picture books, especially those in a different language, won’t hold their attention.
Babies and toddlers also learn through touch/taste and are often rough in their exploration of books.
Interactive books are a great way to solve this problem and can bring a new level to their language learning!
Examples of interactive books include ‘touch and feel’, ‘lift the flap’, and ‘sound button’ books.
Like many toddlers, my daughter went through the phase where she loved opening flaps in books.
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Table of Contents
“Igual Que Yo” Lift-the-Flap Series
I was constantly on the lookout for Spanish interactive books and had a hard time finding them. “Igual Que Yo” is a Bilingual board book series that I stumbled upon in a Scholastic magazine that was directed towards Spanish families.
I ended up buying several of these books and they served us well!
All of the books are on hardcover board books. They’re on the smaller side, about 5″ by 5″, which makes them perfect for little hands.
Every other page is a flap that you can lift up to reveal the image underneath. Unlike some lift the flap books where the flap needs to be lifted with a small tab or with your thumb, these books were built for toddlers and the pages can be easily turned and manipulated by your child.
What We Like About Them
We have several of the “Igual Que Yo” books and we’ve really enjoyed them. They’ve provided a lot of entertainment for my little girl and they’ve added lots of Spanish language input time for her, which is valuable to me. Here’s what we like about them:
Lift The Flaps
Each page has a flap to lift! This is one of the best features of this series because it makes it such an engaging read for young kids. The interaction with the book makes the language process more hands on and doesn’t require simply passive listening.
The act of lifting the flap also gives your kiddo control over an aspect of the reading and they can listen for the intonation in your voice to know that it’s their time to lift the flap and reveal the final phrase.
The flaps in this book are great for younger toddlers because they’re big enough for their hands to be able to manipulate. Some more advanced lift the flap books can have small flaps that sometimes need a tab or one finger to open.
Repetitive Language
Every single page ends with the same phrase “Igual que yo!” or “A mi tambien!” This phrase repetition is so important for young language learners because it allows them to memorize a grammatically correct phrase that they can use outside of reading, whenever the situation calls for it. A few rereads and your child will be speaking Spanish!
Our “Igual Que Yo” Book Picks
There are several books in the “Igual Que Yo” series. Here are our three favorites and our top picks:
Interactive Sound Books
Another great type of interactive book is a sound book. These books can be slightly irritating for adults but are super engaging for kids!
Most sound books are ones that include buttons on the physical book. Depending on the type of sound book, the book might play a song, have dialogue or include a sound effect.
Since my daughter loves all interactive books, I really wanted to find her a set that had Spanish language. This was the first and the best set that I’ve found so far.
Each book is hard cover and pretty durable, which is great for little hands. Not only does each section include a nursery rhyme with the Spanish lyrics, but it also includes an interactive button that plays the song.
To read more about them, check out this article here: Spanish Books With Sound Buttons
Another well loved sound book in our house was this Trolls book with a little CD player. My daughter would ask to be read this story again and again and again. While I read the story, she would press the buttons to activate the sound player when it was time.
More Interactive Spanish Books
Since my daughter has loved interactive books for years, here are some other interactive Spanish books that we own and love.
Karen Katz is famous for her wonderful lift the flap books. This is one of the first Spanish ones that we bought and enjoyed.
This is another sturdy book that adds a color string each time that you turn the page. By the time you get to the end of the book you’ve built the rainbow. My daughter loves to rub her fingers over the colored strings.
DK always makes wonderful nonfiction books and this touch and feel book about fire engines is no different.
If you’re looking for a great Spanish board book to start reading to your child, interactive Spanish books are the perfect start.
It’s nice for parents who are still getting a hang of the language and has features that make it easily accessible to young children and Spanish learners!
Happy Learning!
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This is exactly what I was looking for! I too, am a non-native speaker and I’m trying to teach both myself and my baby to be bilingual and my baby is fascinated with lift the flap and Pat the Bunny type books! Are there any others you can recommend besides this? Thank you so much for the fantastic post!!!
I’m so glad that you found the post helpful! My daughter just LOVED interactive books, of all kinds really, so we have a ton lying around the house. Here are some of the others that she really really loved 🙂
“Donde Esta El Ombliguito” by Karen Katz (there are several in this series and most are lift the flap)
“De Que Esta Hecho El Arcoiris?” by Betty Schwartz (when you turn the page the strings move to build a rainbow)
“Colores” by Eric Carle (you slide the flap on each page to reveal the color)
“El Camion De Bomberos” by DK books (each page has things to feel)
I hope this helps and that you can get some fun new books! Our library also had a good amount of fun interactive books in Spanish, so you can always look there, too.