Lover Boy: A Bilingual Counting Book

I come from a family of besucones. In other words, I’m surrounded by those who love to give and receive tons of kisses. I’ve never been too much into it myself, that is, until my daughter was born almost four years ago and since then, I haven’t been able to stop showering her with kisses every chance I get. She’s a besucona too, so this has not been a problem. I still remember the first time she gave a “real” kiss and I can’t wait for her baby brother to follow suit.

I often ask mi hija to give me a ridiculous and impossible amount of kisses on each cheek, say two hundred and thirty five, so she’ll count as high as she knows—sometimes it’s up to 20, sometimes it’s up to diez y quince!—and then it’s just a combination of all the numbers she knows. We both enjoy playing this kissing game. I think it’s probably one of the reasons why she so loves Lover Boy|Juanito el Cariñoso, a Bilingual Counting Book from another one of our fave publishing houses, Cinco Puntos Press. (By the way, this is not the first time we review one of their books. Go here if you missed the one we did for ReadMe.)

But I’m convinced it also has to do with her love of numbers and counting out loud, showing off how much she know to whomever is around and is willing to indulge her. The author of the book, Lee Merril Byrd—also the owner and publisher of Cinco Puntos Press—does an awesome job of helping little ones learn how to count in both English and Spanish by telling the story of four-year-old Juanito who is basically un besucón! The story line is simple and super easy to follow even for the littlest ones with Juanito dishing out kisses to all the people he loves including mami, papi, baby and, of course, abuelita! After all, this book is based on a real-life character, Byrd’s grandson Johnny who loved kissing everybody when he was very young…

Francisco Delgado’s illustrations are vibrant and the kisses come to life as they are cleverly depicted as corazones—one of my daughter’s favorites, especially if they’re pink . When I read this book to Vanessa, she likes to take the time to count the hearts in both Spanish and English, like the true bilingüe that she is! Ha!

If you’re looking to add a fun, bilingual book to your niño’s library which will also help them practice how to count in both languages, search no more! For a chance to win a copy, continue reading, but remember you can always get most of our finds in La Tiendita.

The Giveaway

This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to our winner: #24 Gingerannbeck!

We’re giving away one copy of Lover Boy|Juanito el Cariñoso to a lucky winner. All you have to do is visit Cinco Puntos Press and tells us which book(s) you like.

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway. If you want to up your chances at winning, then this is how you can get additional entries (only after you’ve completed the step above):

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This giveaway ends Sunday, April 18 at midnight EST.

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