El parque/Park (Los paseos del mapache / Raccoon Rambles) (Spanish and English Edition)

EL PARQUE/PARK is a simple bilingual board book that introduces things at the park and process/order. Raccoon is wandering around the park, seeing some ducks, playing in the mud, and more. The story gives a couple words on each page in both Spanish and English. The end of the book invites the reader to recount what Raccoon did today with a map of sorts to follow and describe.

What I loved: This is a very simple book with limited text throughout that works well for infants and toddlers. The bilingual nature of the book is perfect for introducing some simple words in Spanish and English to little readers. The illustrations are very cute, showing Raccoon in each scene with simple white backgrounds to help readers focus on the activity intended. This is great for early language development and word recognition.

The end of the book includes a map/flow of Raccoon's activities and invites readers to recount all that he did through the park. This is great for considering process or order and allowing little ones to thoughtfully process the text and interact with it (reading comprehension practice).

What left me wanting more: Text was a bit too simple in places where caregivers may want to describe the scene to little ones instead of only reading what is on the page. For instance, when Raccoon is looking at and feeding the ducks, the text is only "Cuac! Cuac! Quack! Quack!" and does not actually describe what he is doing verbally for young readers. However, caregivers can help provide context as they share the story. As another small thing, it was a bit odd that when he is stirring mud, the words in English are "Stir and slurp!" It would be strange for him to drink the mud, but his mouth is open and slurp would imply drinking.

Final verdict: EL PARQUE/PARK is a cute, simple board book with great illustrations that will work well for infants and young toddlers.