Ebooks Minnesota Highlight: Spanish-language ebooks

Ebooks Minnesota contains hundreds of Spanish-language titles, primarily written for grades K-8. It seems counterintuitive, but research suggests that "by developing a child's literacy skills in their home language, it is easier for them to learn to speak, read, and write English in the future."  Having access to Spanish-language books can help educators create a more inclusive environment for all students and can also help Spanish-speaking parents feel more involved in their children's school. Aside from these benefits, Spanish-language books can help Spanish-speaking children celebrate their cultural and ethnic roots and help to raise readers.  

Not only does Ebooks Minnesota offer 500 Spanish-language ebooks, but 142 of these include a text-to-speech option. The combination of seeing and hearing text when reading has been shown to improve word recognition and let students focus on the content rather than on the act of reading, resulting in a better understanding of the material. This feature in Ebooks Minnesota helps make information more accessible to students who might otherwise struggle.  

Since we can't highlight all of the 500 Spanish language ebooks individually in this article, let's just take a look at a few of them. Here are just some of the Spanish-language titles and series available in the collection:

Pedro
Aimed at ages 5 and up, and published from 2016 to 2021, this series includes 21 books by Fran Manushkin. These are stories involving Pedro and his friends as he enjoys adventures at school, on the soccer field, and at home with his sometimes pesky younger brother, Paco.

Ciencia asombrosa
Covering multiple science and nature topics, this series, aimed at grades 1-3, includes 28 titles. Students can learn about weather-related topics like clouds, wind, and rain, or topics ranging from magnetism to oceans and planets.

Biografias de estadounidenses
These primary-source readers, aimed at grades 4-6, include biographical information on numerous well-known people and include photographs and timelines. These American biographies include Cesar Chavez, Clara Barton, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Robinson, and more.

Graphic Revolve
From Stone Arch Books, students can access Spanish-language classics in a graphic novel format aimed at grades 5-8, including Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Gulliver's Travels, Dracula, plus several others.

While many of the Spanish-language ebooks are part of a series, hundreds are not. So whether a student is looking for fiction or nonfiction, books about careers, ancient history, cars, or chocolate, the collection in Ebooks Minnesota has something for everyone.