In this post: Teach your kid to read in Spanish with these leveled books and first phonics readers.
Do you want to support your child’s Spanish literacy skills and help them become confident and independent readers?
Leveled books and ‘First Readers’ are fantastic tools for building a child’s confidence and love for reading.
This post contains affiliate links.
Table of Contents
FREE Readers
At Llamitas Spanish® we build bi-literacy skills throughout our levels from Preschool through Elementary grades.
Included in our Level 1 curriculum are 24 beautifully illustrated First Spanish Readers.
You can download a FREE sample with the first SIX in our Freebie Library to support your child with learning to read in Spanish.
Not confident with pronunciation? Don’t worry- you can listen to the native speaker audio narrations that are included. Here’s a sample of the first story: El barquito from our ‘Ocean unit’.
Related post: How to Raise a Biliterate Kid
What are Spanish Leveled Books?
Leveled books support a child in learning to read and developing their literacy skills. Each book is designed to match a specific reading level and the level of difficulty slowly increases with each level.
Most importantly, they can help boost your child’s confidence and are designed to help your child make logical progress in phonics and print awareness.
Related Post: Best Spanish Chapter Books for Kids
When Should you Start Teaching your Kid to Read?
The Preschool and Kindergarten years are described as the ‘critical window of opportunity’ for establishing literacy skills. This does not mean they are expected to read by then though!
Most children start learning to read in Kindergarten, but this depends on many factors. Every child is unique and some are already able to read entering Kindergarten, while others have not even mastered letter recognition yet.
We must never force a child to read before they are ready. However, we can set the stage so they will want to learn to read and delight in engaging with books and stories.
At ages 0-2 we can begin the process of developing early literacy skills by reading aloud often to our child and talking to them. Then at 3-5 we can begin gently introducing the alphabet and developing letter recognition through fun and interactive play.
Related Post: How to Teach your Child the Spanish Alphabet
Beginner Spanish Readers
The following Spanish Readers are fantastic options for beginner readers who are just starting to work on sight words, high frequency words, and short 2-3 word sentences. Each level gradually increases in difficulty.
English-Spanish First Little Readers
This bilingual reader set includes four boxed levels: (Levels A-D). Each book uses lots of repetition and the dual language text (English and Spanish) on each page really supports non-native speakers.
Each set is color coded (red L1, blue L2, green L3 and orange L4.)
By level 4 the books include past tenses and more complex sentence structures, but still just 2-3 sentences per page. A great option to really support your child in learning to read in Spanish.
My First Bilingual Little Readers
These readers are almost identical to the physical box sets above. The difference is that you have to fold and prepare them as they come as full pages.
Despite the cover showing color illustrations, the stories were actually in black and white which was a bit disappointing. However, it is a very affordable option.
If you can spare the time to prep them, this is one of the most inexpensive Spanish reader options.
It does not get more authentic than this! This collection of 24 original Spanish titles was first published in Spain. It is also available in cursive~ great for Montessori families!
Spanish for Kids: 10 First Reader Books with Online Audio
The little mouse character is quite amusing in this set of short stories are very well put together, with logical sequencing.
Topics include numbers, shapes, colors, food, clothes and many more.
Related Post: How to Read in Spanish ~ 5 Tips for Beginners
Leveled Books in Spanish
The Spanish language line of the popular Margaret Wise Brown guided reading series ‘Step into Reading’. Although not ‘authentically’ Hispanic, these titles are affordable and cleverly sequenced.
There are 5 total series (or ‘pasos’) from Level 1: Preschool- K that focus on simple sentences, through Level 5 for 2nd-4th grade that are beginner chapter books.
Beginning-To-Read, Spanish Fairy Tales & Folklore
Although harder to find, these are readers are beautifully retold by Margaret Hillert. The classical illustrations are delightful!
Related Post: Latin American and Spanish Folktales for Kids
An adorable series about Rafi and his younger sister, Rosi, in Puerto Rico. Follow along as they discover the beauty of their country and all it has to offer. A fantastic series of adventure filled short stories for early readers!
Bizcocho (Mi primer libro ¡Yo sé leer!)
Biscuit in Spanish! These are more suitable for readers on their way to independent reading, as opposed to beginner books. They are less repetitive and have less high frequency words than other leveled readers.
The stories are still super engaging and perfect for classroom or at home read alouds.
National Geographic Readers in Spanish
A beautiful non-fiction series in Spanish by National Geographic Kids. These titles are for slightly older readers but the big illustrations will captivate younger children too.
From animals to volcanoes, rocks to weather, there are so many fun topics to enjoy in these short Spanish readers.
This is a really authentic and original Spanish series by Bambú written in Spain. There are plenty to choose from and are written by Spanish native speakers.
These are not at beginner level! They work great as first chapter books or newly independent readers.
Don’t forget to grab your FREE Spanish Readers in our Freebie Library! Happy reading!
Founder of the Llamitas Spanish® Curriculum and former Spanish teacher. Corrie holds two Master Degrees in Spanish and Education. She lives in San Diego, California with her husband and two bilingual children.