Mandy and Pandy Say, "Ni Hao Ma?" [With CD (Audio)]

This is a cute and effective book for learning Mandarin along with your child - it comes with a CD to follow along. The CD is indispensable for hearing the accents; it simply follows the text in both English and Mandarin. There is no story, but just basic scenarios like greetings (Ni hao mao), playing in the park, swimming, eating, and bedtime. The one scenario that doesn't seem necessary is the one page with all the English names of Mandy's friends translated into Mandarin. Perhaps the author's daughter has real friends with those names, but they do not seem helpful for general readers. (Names are translated based on phonetic sounds, not meaning.) Initially my son did not take to this book, but now he is 18 months old and loves carrying it around. He also looks at the pictures on his own for a long time. I am thrilled that he likes this bilingual book, so I have ordered more books from the Mandy and Pandy series.