Smarty Books: New Spanish Book, Baby & More
On welcoming a new baby, a new book, and talking books
An Exciting Month
July has been a big month! We welcomed a new family member and my latest Spanish book. This month, I’m departing from the norm to talk about these two milestones. However, the bulk of this post is about talking books and how to find them. (4 minute read)
Baby Benjamin
Baby Ben was born at the beginning of July, and we’re enjoying lots of newborn snuggles. Here we are writing this post on the deck.
We are both doing well, except for the sleep deprivation (me, not him).
¿Dónde está Diego? (Where is Diego?)
My new Spanish picture book released on July 12th. It’s an I-spy book for beginning Spanish learners to practice color vocabulary by finding a color-changing chameleon hiding on each page.
Diego the chameleon enjoys sunbathing in the front window, but then Blanca the cat starts to search for him. Can he make it back to his home before she catches him? There’s a surprise twist that I won’t give away here.
The art was done by Olívia Pinto, the São Paulo-based artist I’ve worked with on several books. We have great synergy, and she made Blanca and Diego come alive. She also figured out crazy hiding places for Diego that I never would have thought of!
For Spanish teachers, this book is filled with repetition of the key vocabulary ¿Dónde está…?, está allí, es, and the color words.
¿Dónde está Diego? is available through TPRS Books. Click here to view the book and a sample with a complete glossary and the first few pages.
Books That Read Themselves… Sign Me Up!
Sometimes you need your child to do something by themselves for just a few minutes. It’s time to make dinner. It’s nap time, but your older child stopped napping. Or, you just want to spend a few more minutes in the shoe aisle.
Talking books have many names. Vox Books. Wonder Books. Audio-enabled books. Call them what you will. These books can be a life saver when you need a short, solo activity. The following information features picture books, but talking books are also available for older readers (chapter books, etc.).
How it Works
Both styles of talking picture books I’ve seen have either an on-off slider switch or a power button.
The parent or child turns the book on and then presses play. The book will go over directions and introduce the page-turning sound, usually a chime or a sound related to the story, and then it will begin reading the story.
Sometimes I have to help my kids start on the correct first page, but otherwise, they are generally able to track the page turns. Some kids are better at keeping track of the page turns than others, but they can still enjoy listening to the story even if they’re off by a page or two.
I have never needed to charge one of the books. They last a long time and seem pretty resilient.
How to Find Books
This is my favorite part, huge library fan that I am. If you are in the South Central Wisconsin Library System, I am about to share all my secrets with you. Our system uses LINKcat, so some of this information might be helpful if your system does, too.
First, search for a book. Here is the listing for Miss Rumphius, one of my childhood favorites. Note that you are looking for the listing including “audio-enabled book.”
Click on the listing. Once inside the listing, below the general information and on the right side of the table of holdings, click on “View nearby items on shelf.” Sometimes I choose my own library, and sometimes I choose a library I think is big and will have a lot of titles. Sometimes I choose a library I’ve never been to in person to see what they have.
Scroll through other talking books until you see one that looks interesting. When I did this activity, I was surprised to see how many titles showed up online that were checked out of my local library and that I had NEVER seen there in person.
From here, you can click on titles, read blurbs and place holds. You can always enter the shelf again by clicking “View nearby titles.”
Note: the system will only let you click the right arrow a certain amount of times before you have to click on a book and restart the “view nearby titles” process. If this happens to you, you probably haven’t reached the end of the books— just the end of the permitted number of preview screens.
I hope this gives you the information you need to enter the wonderful world of talking books!
Happy reading until we meet again!
—Sarah White
Up Next
In August, we’ll return to our usual format with Kathi Appelt and her book Mogie: The Heart of the House.
Christmas Book Nominations Still Open!
Thank you for the Christmas book nominations so far! I’m still taking nominations, so add a comment if you have ideas. If you have a brilliant idea but would rather not create a Substack account, you can email me your book recommendation at sarahmichellewhite[at]gmail[dot]com.
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Another great Substack! Congratulations on your new little one and continued prayers and good wishes for Smarty Books.