I love using interactive books. When you have a child that is learning a second language, AV2 Books has a series for you. We recently had a chance to review the interactive book Planets, from the AV2 World Languages collection published Weigl Publishers, Inc.

Planets is a non-fiction storybook written for grades pre-kindergarten through early elementary grades 2. It introduces children to the basics of learning about the solar system that we live in. Exploring each planet briefly, this twenty-one-page book features full-color space photographs of the various planets and space object. At the end of the book, further space facts are given for the parent to cover with the student. These are at the end since the actual story pages were written using thirty-two of the most common used sight words for the practice of early readers. Included in the story pages are extra content words that are paired with their specific pictures to help student’s comprehension and retention.

At the beginning of each interactive book in the AV2 World Language series is a code that you are given which gives you access to a digital copy of the book you purchased. You can access the book using either a tablet, laptop, desktop and even a Smart Board. We were able to easily access this using my laptop. This is where the foreign language comes in. Your student can read the story in both English and five other languages including Spanish, French, Mandarin, Russian, and Arabic.

Since Caty has been learning Spanish, we compared the English and Spanish versions using the interactive book on my laptop. This was very easy, since the user interface is kid friendly. She just needed to click back and forth and use the arrow keys to turn the pages. Since Planets is written using very simple early elementary sight words, exploring the phrases and sentences in another language was easy. She actually started to recognize several words.

Caty was also inspired to try to draw the planets of our solar system in her nature journal. The bright colored photographs were very helpful for her to complete her drawings.

Planets was a very fun book to explore and I cannot wait to check out the other titles in the World Language eBook series. They are great additions to your reading library and curriculum study add-ons.

-Product review by Renita Kuehner, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, July, 2018