As a parent, I am always on the lookout for books and toys that share my values and depict real world scenarios in age appropriate ways. This beautifully illustrated book and puppet set are a great tool for not only raising bilingual children, but for teaching children to never settle, to take the path less traveled and most importantly, that love is color blind.

Meet Lola. She may live on a simple little chicken farm but she is no simple little chicken.

All the other (simple) chickens squabble and fuss trying to get the attention of the big, bold self-involved rooster.

Every day, the big bold self-involved rooster picks one of the chickens to sit next to him. An honor for any simple chicken.

But Lola, didn’t want to sit next to the rooster. She wanted to sit next to someone special-someone who loves her and only her. So Lola decided that the simple chicken farm was too complicated and stepped outside the safety of the fence in search of something more. (BTW – The rooster’s ego was crushed and he learned his lesson)

Lola traveled far and picked her own path declaring, “Now it’s my turn to choose!”

Meet the fox. This can’t be good, right? Don’t foxes eat chickens? But who is to say that all foxes are bad…

This Set includes:

• hardcover bilingual (English/Spanish) Lola Book with 32 pages of beautiful colorful illustrations
• Lola Puppet
• Fox Puppet

Here’s the Deal:
Sold separately these three items retail for $39.85 however purchased together in my bundle, they will only cost you $30.00. Also – I got FREE SHIPPING on this for you! You definitely can’t find this cheaper, and you definitely can’t find cuter puppets to teach your kids about such love. Go ahead and Google it- you won’t find a better deal. I’m totally the low price leader (that sounds so cool to say and MEAN IT!).

You know your son/daughter (your more human version of the less simple chicken, Lola) will love it! When you’re going through check out – enter code LolaShipMay and voila! FREE SHIPPING (Only until 5/31).

Oh, and THEN, once you’ve received your book and puppets… please comment on this post to let me know how much your kiddos loved it.

About this series: Every week I pick a product from my shop and let you know why I love it. When possible, I will work with OpenSky and/or the Supplier to bring you a discount for the week that product is featured. All products featured are ones I feel are either GOOD for you and/or GOOD for the environment. I really hope you find these products to be as FUN and FABULOUS as I do.

One of the goals I have as a parent is to raise my daughter to be multilingual. Since my husband and I primarily speak English I know this is not going to be an easy task. While attending bilingual story and rhyme time at our local library I discovered the following series of books by Gladys Rosa-Mendoza.

These bright, colorful, and engaging books introduce basic words, simple sentences and important concepts to preschoolers. The concepts and language within the books become gradually more challenging in the later volumes.

Although there are many Spanish language books for children, this series has quickly become a key resource in my quest to raise a multilingual child for the following reasons.

Durable
Rounded corners allow for young children to access them independently and since they are board books they are less likely to get ripped or chewed up, allowing them to last several years.

Bilingual
Since they contain both English and Spanish it makes them a valuable resource for both native Spanish and English speakers. This series of books actually uses the Spanish language properly and the translations make sense, which is not always the case with other translated books. I also like that as I read these books to my daughter my Spanish is improving as well.

Award Winning Quality
Not only are these books well written/illustrated they often contain themes of love and self-esteem. This series has won three Latino Literacy Awards, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the Award of Excellence at Chicago Book Clinic Book & Media Show, First Place in the International Latino Book Awards, and seven Writer’s Digest Certificate of Merit Awards.

Tools for Proper Pronunciation
At the back of each book there is a page of pronunciations (both English and Spanish) to help the reader learn how to correctly say each word, which is especially beneficial to parents that are not bilingual.

Questions for Readers:

• What are your thoughts and experiences on raising children to speak more than one language?
• Are there any resources or techniques you would recommend?

Since Ivey’s arrival I have read well over 100 different board books to her. Most of these these books we found at our local library however, we have purchased several dozen as well. Out of all the books the following four are presently her favorites.

Look
This board book contains nine modern, clean, well designed illustrations. These illustrations seem to quickly grab Ivey’s attention due to their large scale and boldness. This particular book contains no copy. Since the modern look matches the decor in our loft I often leave it sitting on our coffee table.

Count
This board book contains a modern, clean illustration and a simple yet catchy story. The copy on each page reads, “Blue bird, blue bird, what do you see? I see (insert number from 1-5) bird(s) up in the tree.” Again this book is so pretty that I often leave it on our coffee table. Ivey seems to really like the copy and I will also swap out the one, two, three, four, five, for uno, dos, tres, quatro, cinco to spice it up a bit.

Peek-A Who?
This board book contains colorful illustrations and content that seems to grabs Ivey’s attention. The content reads, “Peek-a Who? Peek-a Moo! Peek-a Boo! Peek-a Zoo! Peek-a Choo-Choo! Peek-a You!” I have read this book so many times that I often recite it from memory when Ivey gets upset which always seems to calm her down and make her smile.

Baby Faces
This board book contains sixteen photos of babies with different expressions and states (i.e. happy, sad, dirty, clean). Although the book itself is quite simple Ivey seems to really enjoy looking at the babies’ faces. Her favorite seems to be the “happy” baby.

I love you, but I am starting to have doubts about our relationship. At times it seems a little one-sided. No matter how much money I spend my needs are not being met. My eye has started to wander.  Her name is Nook and although nothing has happened (no Nookie yet) she has made some interesting promises.

• She tells me I will be able to touch her screen and get a response. Pushing your buttons isn’t always intuitive.
• Instead of being exclusive, when I am done reading a book, she is going to let me loan that book to all of my friends.
• And lastly, she is colorful whereas you are so black and white.

So what do you think? Can we make some changes? I really do love you and I want this relationship to work.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Barnes & Noble’s eReader Might Come October 20 and Have Person-to-Person Lending [Rumor] (gizmodo.com)
• Barnes & Noble Reader Allows Book Sharing (ubergizmo.com)
• Barnes & Noble Nook Review (gizmodo.com)