JaJaJa Books

I came across jajaja books through their Twitter page and was asked if Emmy would like to review these new books.  Emmy loves her stories so I happily agreed as I keep meaning to try to teach her some other languages which she is small but never actually remember to teach myself first!  It’s been rather a long time since I recieved my C grades for both French and German at GCSE level at school.

We recieved two lovely books through the post: Phillip & Felipe Become Best Amigos and Lucy & Lucia Play Hide and Seek.

JaJaJa Books take the child on a learning experience throughout the story, they are mostly written in English but have key foreign words popped into the story so both you and your child are learning at the same time.  The stories are written about everyday situations and things you would do on holiday so that when you jet off on your vocation both yourselves and your child will have already learnt a few basic words which you can start using straight away.

In the story of Lucy & Lucia Play Hide and Seek you learn the Spanish for numbers 1-10 (Emmy has already picked up Uno, Dos and Tres – i’m very impressed as she is only 19 months old!), you also learn the Spanish for Swimming Pool, Help, Thank You, My, Name and Friends as well as a few basic sentences.

While in the story of Phillip & Felipe Become Best Amigos you learn the Spanish for Supermarket, Ice-Cream, Yes, Police, My, Best and Friends amongst others.  The books also have a Word list at the back of the books so you can recap on the words at a later date.

JaJaJa Books are written by Genevieve Yusef who was born in Colchester, Essex in 1978. She studied at the University of Sussex and has a degree in Linguistics and Spanish. By writting the books she has brought the two of her passions together. She has been a private Spanish tutor to children for many years and picked up along the way, what interests children and what makes them tick!

She noticed that children learn best when they don’t realise they are learning. That is why a fun story is a good way to introduce another language. As part of her degree she studied second language acquisition in children and is aware that introducing a foreign language to a child at an early age is the best for their learning.

These lovely books are beautifully illustrated by Susanne Wilson a full time Essex mum to 3 children.

These books are 24 pages long and are very engaging for children of various ages, Emmy who is under 2 enjoys Mummy and Daddy reading them to her whilst other children up to the age of 7 would enjoy reading them for themselves – learning and not actually realising!! They retail at £4.50 each and furture books are to include – Lucy & Lucia go to the Playa and Phillipe & Felipe go to eat Tapas!  Audio CD’s and puzzles will also soon be available.

To find out more and to purchase these book visit their website www.jajaja-books.com and you can also follow them on Twitter.