Picture book for learning the Spanish verbs "quiero" and "quieres"

¡Quiero mi plátano! (I want my banana!) is an excellent book for introducing or reinforcing the Spanish verb querer, to want.  I read it to my children when they were small, and I use it in classes with children learning Spanish.

The story is about a monkey who has lost his banana and wants it. The jungle animals offer him other fruit, but he only wants his banana. The repetition of quiero (I want) and ¿quieres? (Do you want?) is exactly what children need to learn the forms of this very common verb. The Spanish vocabulary is practical – fruits and common adjectives.  Also, the sentence structures are basic and the illustrations make the Spanish text clear.  If you are learning Spanish with your child, there is a pronunciation guide in the back of the book, and the text is in English and Spanish on each page.

Reading ¡Quiero mi plátano! with your child will let her hear the pattern ¿quieres? – quiero over and over. This is the pattern of everyday speech (Do you want..? Yes, I want/No,  I don’t want…) Hearing these verb forms she will begin to understand and learn Spanish.