Bilingual Baby Board Books- Keep 'Em Coming!

 I first learned about Canticos bilingual books when a box appeared on my doorstep last spring. I will occasionally review board books and "first books" here, but not often. The theme of this blog, the driving force that led me to launch it some 500+ posts ago, is to undermine any thought that picture books are "baby" books and should be abandoned by first grade, or sooner. 

Picture books are for EVERYONE, right? That's my personal and professional belief. Certainly, there are target ages for ideal audiences for particular books. That is certainly true for boardbooks, and for early concept books, many alphabet and number books, etc. These have less broad appeal forolder ages, of course, but many can serve in a variety of ways for older readers, particularly as mentor text.

Cantacos First Concepts, 2020

Boardbooks, not so much. Even so, babies and toddlers are a very important part of "everyone".  That's why I read and enjoyed the original sample bilingual boardbooks and wrote a post about them here. At the time I was especially impressed with the well-developed online resources related to the books, the text, and the recurring characters, including songs and videos. 

Their promise at that time was that there would be more to offer, and that has now happened. Their books now include concepts like opposites, feelings, shapes and patterns, alphabet, etc. They are tot-friendly sized, very sturdily bound, with interiors including lift flaps, folds, and even a few books that fully extend. The characters are appealing and recurring throughout the series, providing effective repetition that leads to vocabulary development, both oral and word recognition. Most importantly, the bilingual pairings are simple and consistent, with that potential musical link to trigger memory. 

The website offerings include plush toys and other related materials, and an app has been developed to make it easy to use musical links on mobile devices. 

Aside: let me mention here that putting mobile devices into kids' hands is NOT my recommendation. Putting actual books into their hands IS ALWAYS a better choice. Kids, especially babies, value most what their loved adults value. They will choose books, if that is what those loved ones value. 

In this case, the books themselves are colorful, durable, and engaging, including fine motor interactions. Core book concepts related to top/bottom, front/back, page turns, concepts of words, and language patterns will develop with shared and independent use. In this case, the bilingual aspect is an enormous benefit for English and Spanish audiences. While language is developing in the first three years, growing brains are particularly able to expand the neural pathways that enhance learning of MANY languages. If these books are used and paired with the musical options they could even be used effectively into early childhood to begin bilingual reading, writing, and speaking. 

These latest books were sent to me with no promise of a review of any kind, but I don't hesitate to say that they offer valuable tools for entertainment, learning, and love of books in the youngest audiences. Take a look at these and related materials HERE, at CanticosWorld.com.

Keep in mind that you can access some of their materials for free, including downloadable files. These books are now on their way to my local public library to include in their baby/family collection.

More About Board Books: Bilingual!

Two notes to launch this post:
1) I received this set of bilingual board books from a publisher with no promise of a review of any kind. 
2) That delivery was a welcome surprise on yet another COVID19 Safer-At-Home day. I've had a long-standing friendship with our mail person for the many years, enjoying conversations that have ceased in these days in order to sustain physical/social distance. She knows me well. Through the window she smiled, shook the box, and mouthed: "BOOKS! It's a good day!"

I was not familiar with CANTICOS, a YouTube Channel for bilingual nursery rhymes and kids' songs (HERE). Their short English/Spanish videos incorporate adorable animal characters and one cardboard cutout who comes to life, Pin Pon. They populate the various short features, singing songs in both English and Spanish, delivered at a pace that sustains attention and allows for little ones to participate spontaneously. 

Now these characters, stories, and words are featured in a series of early concept board books. In case you missed it, I hope you'll read my recent post about an outstanding board book offering, EGG. In it, I mentioned some of the essential qualities of board books: durability, size, age-appropriate content, long-lasting appeal. 
The board books in this new series have those features and add several forms of interactivity (flaps, tabs, sliders, fanfolds, magnets, etc.). These elevate the appeal, although such features can make it challenging to prevent damage from little hands with unrefined motor control and unbridled enthusiasm. But these are made of sturdy materials and bindings, so I'm betting this set of books will survive repeated handling by eager little fingers. 

The publisher's materials enclosed with the books didn't state this, but I'm guessing that parent/caregivers of little video fans may have asked for books related to the series. These certainly should make preschoolers (and adults who care for them) happy with the effort. Tots will read/play/sing along with numbers, letters, colors, and nursery rhymes with monthly releases throughout the spring and summer. In the process, little ones will develop reading and speaking skills in both languages, fostering early literacy and exercising brain cells at a crucial time in their development. Engaged adults may also learn a thing or two!

These are not the types of books I typically feature, but several factors moved me to share them here. First, the overall design has been thoughtfully executed, with consistency of images and labels, font choices, and pacing to convey content effectively. Additionally, but not secondarily, I found these to be exciting offerings in early childhood bilingual language and literacy development. I readily admit that I am NOT an expert in this specialized area, and I view them from an English-speaker's perspective. As such, I feel confident in recommending the books to those whose primary language is English. 
I'll never stop advocating for increasing bilingualism in ALL children, but especially in typically monolingual American children. When additional languages are introduced through musical, visual, and engaging experiences, young minds absorb, expand, and retain languages with lifelong benefits,

I'd welcome insights and reactions from those whose primary language is Spanish.

Meanwhile, I can't resist a reference to Covid19 Homeschooling experiences. Teachers, students, and caregivers are gradually developing a new-normal approach to delivery of instruction. Even so, there's no doubt that some days (most days?) require doses of "out-of-the-box" approaches, time spent away from assignments. Exploring activities involving other languages could be exactly the kind of challenge to energize and engage when exhaustion and/or frustration loom. These little board books reminded me of how much FUN it can be to learn a new language, and how many resources exist to do so. Why not give it a try?