El Arco Iris de Ruben / Ruben's Rainbow: Bilingual Collection

I'm not bilingual, so I wasn't sure how the accents over the letters made them sound, until I listened to the CD & followed along in the book.It's an unapologetically whimsical story of a boy discovering a world full of color, & Grizelle Paz's pictures are delightful.A fascinating way to listen & learn the sounds of another language, & I loved the sound effects, too!

What would it be like if the world had no color? Ruben knows, because he used to live without color. Who's Ruben, you ask? He's the young boy in the book, "Ruben's Rainbow," who lived in a black-and-white world. After being "plopped" into a new and colorful world, Ruben found a way to bring all the colors of the rainbow back home with him.This book is special -- it is written in English and Spanish. The sentences are short and easily translated, so parents and children can read in both languages. Accompanying the book is an Audio CD, that recites the story out loud, first in English alone, then in Spanish alone, and then in both English and Spanish. For the dual version, I wish that one sentence at a time was translated instead of the whole page. Also, I would have preferred some silence after the translation, so the parent or child could repeat the words themselves before the next sentence began. Despite my own preferences, the Audio CD is a wonderful complement to the book, since it allows parents and children to actually hear how the words should be pronounced in both languages. MyParenTime.com recommends "Ruben's Rainbow," by Carlos Harrison and Grizelle Paz - the story is sweet; the illustrations are colorful and simple; and it introduces another language to children. And with the Audio CD, children can have the luxury of hearing the story in English, Spanish or both :).

Ruben's Rainbow/El Arco Iris de Ruben is a bilingual full color picturebook for children. The text by Carols Harrison is written in both English and Spanish on each page, and it comes with a read-along audio CD that has three tracks: one in English, one in Spanish, and one in both English and Spanish. The warm and engaging story, artfully illustrated by Grizelle Paz, is about a young boy who is missing color from his life until he goes out and brings home a rainbow in his cap. The sentences of Ruben's Rainbow are of moderate length without being too complex, making it a superb book to help young children learn how to be bilingual. Highly recommended for family, school, community center, and public library collections.

I gave 'Ruben's Rainbow' to my four-year-old nephew and he loves it! He even listens to the CD that came with it by himself on the computer -- he's learned a little Spanish in his pre-school and he's developing a really good ear for it. The story itself is really sweet and the illustrations are great. I would recommend this to anybody who needs a gift for a small child, it's a high-quality book and it has added educational value too.

Ruben's Rainbow is beautifully illustrated. The story is a wonderful tale about how Ruben falls one morning in a world filled with color and brings that color back with him. The book is bilingual so your kids and you can learn Spanish (or English). It comes with a CD with the audio of the story that is very helpful and a great addition to the book.