I've been trying to learn Spanish on my own with limited success over the past 2 years, but I think I'll make alot of progress using bilingual books. Repeated exposure to proper Spanish grammar, verb tenses, and vocabulary is far more beneficial to me than rote memorization from a textbook, and sometimes the stories are so interesting that you forget that you're reading a different language. The folklore of Latin America is brought to life by the stories, which cover many scenarios and countries. My biggest criticsm is that the dictionary in the back should include more words, and the translation could be more literal, if possible. Sometimes, although rarely, words are used that aren't translated and aren't in the dictionary. Nevertheless, I felt my Spanish comprehension and vocabulary improving with each story I read, and I'm looking forward to moving on to Historias de Mexico.

This is a great book for anyone at the intermediate Spanish level. I particularly enjoyed the fact that the stories were short - each of the 16 stories is about four pages long (four pages each of Spanish and English). My only complaint is that 4 of the 16 legends are from Mexico, which seems a little Mexico-centric, given that there is a companion volume of legends from Mexico available. But that is a minor flaw of a very enjoyable book.

I found the title a very valuable resource in assisting me to learn Spanish. As an adult, it is good to read something that is not purely aimed at the younger person. The stories were interesting to me as an adult. I found the level of the Spanish at a standard which was not too complex yet still gave many challenges - a good combination. For someone wishing to improve their understanding and comprehension of written Spanish I believe this is a very useful addition to their library.

This is an awesome book for general level 3 or advanced level 2 high school Spanish classes. The students can read with minimal dictionary work, they are able to use the footnotes and glossary. These can be used in the classroom for enhance a unit on Spain. High student interest.

I finished college intermediate Spanish last spring. I am going to start upper level Spanish courses in the fall. I tell you this so you can gauge my level of profieciency. This is a nice reader. The legends are not as dark as some of the short stories in other readers. They also help form a base to begin to understand the Latin American culture. There are questions at the end of each story. They are sufficient to test ones comprehension. I am reading this book to keep up my Spanish during my summer break. Yet it is also enjoyable.

"Leyendas Mexícanas" is a collection of eighteen Mexican legends. Each story is a delight to read. The legends reflect events from approximately 1,500 years of the country's history and folklore of Mexico. The tales introduce an array of memorable characters (from animals, gods, goddesses, ancient rulers and warriors) of the Mexican Republic.They are truly authenthic legends. One of my favorite is "El León y El Grillo." I love the way the little crickett outsmarts the lion. And "Atzima, la Princesa" it a legend of true love. Readers will learn how these characters resolved the dilemas that confronted them: some with great chourage, and others with remarkable ingenuity. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the rich cultural heritage of Mexico like I do.

This soft-covered book of 140 pages contains 16 Mexican legends spanning >1500 years. These are easy, enjoyable stories to read, especially appropriate for the early Spanish learner. Having side-by-side English translation is immensely helpful [though in the back of the book there is an additional appropriate dictionary]. Few of the complicated Spanish verb forms, viz., subjunctive, are found which is a minor point. All the legends are popular Mexican legends, appropriate for young and old.

I have only one reservation with one story [content]: #16, The Bed of Roses [Un lecho de rosas] which manages to portray Hernan Cortez as a victim of this own army in his reluctance to torture the Aztec leaders Cuautemoc and Tacuba for their treasures. One can only sigh and agree with the wag who stated that history is strictly written by the victors.

Nevertheless, the short stories are on the whole easy, entertaining and informative for all who wish to either brush up or test Spanish as a second language. I suggest purchasing this reasonably priced book if these are your goals.

Stories from Mexico/Historias de Mexico is a wonderful book for improving Spanish reading skills. In fact, the other two books in the series, Stories From Spain and Stories From Latin America are equally great. Each book makes wide and varied use of vocabulary so that each one of the books teaches new words. The translations are usually extremely faithful, which is important when the point is to build vocabulary knowledge and not literary beauty. These books are even great for teaching English to Spanish speaking ESL students. While spending my summer in Costa Rica I used Historias de Mexico with one of my English students and she loved it. The stories are short, so one does not become frustrated and they are very entertaining. Buy this book! I would LOVE to see a professional recording come out on this series.

Because the stories are ancient stories that reflect themes still used in modern Latin America the reading is interesting for older readers while still being easy enough for beginners and intermediates. Reading is much more pleasurable when, in difficult sections, one doesn't have to go searching through a separate dictionary. Translations are not literal and therefore instructive in phraseology. I found this to be a refreshing alternative. I can suggest a new magazine out called Mi Gente which also does English and Spanish side by side on current Latin American issues.

I have read both this Book and also "Stories from Puerto Rico",both of which I thoroughly enjoyed,and found very educational from a grammatical and vocabulary point of view. As a student of the language I appreciate the Authors's efforts. Both books would certainly have received 5\5 but for the dictionary at the end of each book.This I feel is uneccessary,and in each case accounts for almost 1\3 of each book.That space could surely have been taken up with more stories.In any event one has the translation,on both sides, so why the need for the dictionary.

Genevieve Barlow's Stories from Spain is part of a series of bilingual books containing legends from Spanish-speaking countries. (See my anonymous review of Barlow's Stories from Latin America, 15 April 2000). This is a good book for anyone learning intermediate Spanish. It contains eighteen legends from Spain, and through these stories, some of which date back to the Moors' conquest of Spain, one can get a sense of Spanish history and culture.

Although I enjoyed the tales, I don't think the book is as good as Stories from Latin America. In that collection, the stories are roughly four pages in length; in this book, they are only two pages long (two pages each of English and Spanish). The writing seems a bit simplified and at times I felt that I was reading summaries of more intricate, and richer, legends. Also, an English-Spanish vocabulary section at the end takes up nearly one-third of the book, leaving only 113 pages for the stories themselves (as opposed to Stories from Latin America, whose sixteen tales total some 149 pages).

I'm glad I have both books in my collection, as this type of book is hard to come by. If you can afford to buy both, read Stories from Spain first, as the writing is a little bit simpler. If you can only afford to buy one, I'd go with Stories from Latin America.

This is a true bilingual book in Spanish and English. I love the format of presenting the Spanish on one page and the English equivalent on the facing page. You can easily go from one to the other. Because the stories are short and pretty basic, if you are trying to learn Spanish it is a great tutoring tool. You should already know some basic Spanish before reading the book, but for the intermediate or advanced beginner it is a great way to increase your vocabulary and practice correct sentence structure. In addition, the stories are from Spain and so teach some of the history and legends to help you get a feel for the country. Finally, there is a small dictionary at the back of the book that contains most of the words that you might encounter in the text.

Whether you use it for a review, to learn Spanish, to increase your Spanish vocabulary or just like the stories, it is a great little book and this style of dual translation books is highly recommended as an adjunct to a Spanish course of any type to recommend to speed your learning of a foreign language.