El Castillo Misterioso

Book Review

Title:	El Castillo Misterioso (Mystery Castle)
Editor:	Kate Needham
Publisher:	EDC Publishing, Tulsa, OK
ISBN:	0-7460-2525-4
Reviewed By:	Frank Fogg
Review Date:	July, 2001
Rating:

El Castillo Misterioso (Mystery Castle) is a bi-lingual  puzzle story for children written in Spanish and English. The book contains 25 pages and is colorfully illustrated.

The  storyline is set inside of a large medieval castle. The young reader searches each page for objects that are listed at the beginning of the story. These objects, including run-fast shoes, an anti-monster shield, and a super flashlight are used to solve the mystery at the end of the story. Also hidden on each page are additional items such as a ghost and juggler balls for the reader to search for.

The storyline is presented in Spanish. A list of all of  the Spanish words on each page along with the English translation is provided in a key box near the top of the page to help the beginner to understand the material. The reader must follow directions given in Spanish by both humans and animals to solve the puzzle for that particular page. Additional instructions  are provided in English so that the child can complete each page. An index of  all of the words and phrases is included on the final two pages for a quick reference. This index also includes a pronunciation key to sound out unfamiliar words.

Kids love this book. They enjoy looking over the colorful  pages and searching for the objects they need to find. They will look at it  time and time again, it never seems to bore them, and they can hardly wait to take their turn when another child is using the book.

El Castillo Misterioso is a fun vehicle for young children to improve their Spanish skills. It is colorfully illustrated and children enjoy  working with the puzzles. It covers a variety of basic Spanish vocabulary and is formatted so that children can readily understand new words and phrases.

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