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I’m excited to introduce you to Tim Johnson’s newest book today, “Bosley Builds a Tree House”. This is a dual-language book, and is the fourth in the Bosley Bear series. I received a electric copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This post may contain affiliate links.
Bosley Builds a Tree House is available in seven languages along with the English translations. You have your choice of Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese and Japanese.
The Bosley Bear children’s books are a good introduction to other languages for young children. Bosley Builds a Tree House is set out so that the illustration is on the left side of the page and on the right hand page is the story in two columns. The left column is in English, and the right column in is Japanese. The key vocabulary words are bolded and in green for convenience.
I chose to review the English/Japanese version of Bosley Builds a Tree House so that I can introduce a little Japanese to my children. We are members of the Japan Society of Northern Ireland, and have attended events such as the Summer Matsuri and Christmas parties. They have heard a little Japanese spoken at these events, and they’ve heard me attempt to speak a few words with the Mom of a friend who was over visiting from Kyoto. I would love for us to learn some Japanese together and we’re going to begin with Bosley.
The English/Japanese book is written in Kana, the phonetic Japanese alphabet, so I need to refresh my memory which seems to have forgotten more than it’s remembered (is that possible?). So I brought out a textbook and the flashcards I made when I took a Japanese course in Belfast many years ago. By having the Japanese in Kana it forces you to learn it if you don’t already know it (not a bad thing, but more difficult than Romaji for beginners or non-Japanese speakers). I looked up the Kana and wrote the English phonetics and then learned the words.
Bosley Builds a Tree House is a lovely book about Bosley Bear and his forest friends. One day they thought that they should build a tree house. They collaborated to draw up the plans and construct their ideal tree house. The various animals worked together to achieve their goal. Cooperation and acceptance were key and they built on each other’s strengths.
Interested in learning Japanese? Why not check out our collection of Japanese language resources.
The illustrations by Ozzy Esha are cute and bright, while at the same time using the light to make the forest a little moody and mysterious. The forest creatures are endearing and friendly.
There is some good vocabulary introduction in this book. I like that the key vocab are included on the illustrated pages to help children associate that word with the item in the picture.
Here Tristan is actually reading the English. It’s fun that while he is learning to read English I’m re-learning to read Japanese at the same time. I think he is doing a better job!
One way I think Tim could make this a better experience is to have available a read-aloud version of these books. This would help children hear and practice the correct pronunciation when the parents don’t know how to read the books themselves.
If English isn’t your first language, this book could also be used for those wanting to learn English. I’m thinking of buying one to send to the English school I taught at in Toyama, Japan.
“Tim discovered the power of bilingual books while visiting Japan as a teenager. In 2011 he published his first dual language children’s book in 7 different foreign languages as a tool for increasing cultural awareness and gaining new perspectives. Bosley Bear has since become popular among US and international readers, providing a fantastic way for children to learn a second language in a fun, easy and natural way.”
I’ve found it difficult to source these types of books. It’s good to know that a niche in the market is being filled and I’ll be keeping my eye on The Language Bear for future products. If you’d like to follow Tim as well, you can find him on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and also Pinterest.
If you enjoy books, flip over to our books and book activities page, or see our Multicultural Activities for Kids page where you’ll find all of our multicultural ideas in one place.
More Dual Language Books For Kids:
Jill @ Called To Be A Mom says
I’m amazed that you know some Japanese! That just seems so hard to me. I was going to learn Hebrew and it has a similar character instead of letter. I love that you are teaching the kids right along with re-learing it yourself.
Crystal McClean says
Oh gosh, Hebrew would be difficult. I really only learned the Kana, but the Chinese characters I only know a few-they are so much more difficult as each one can have several meanings and pronunciations, and there are roughly 2100 ‘basic’ characters that you need to know before leaving school, and there are thousands more!
bn100 says
maybe Russian
Brittney says
Spanish would be fun–that’s our foreign language of choice! 🙂
Debbie Bray says
english
Amanda @MissPandaChinese says
It is wonderful to see more bilingual books for young children.
Crystal McClean says
In today’s world, they really are a fantastic resource for both parents and children!
Caro says
We love books with different languages, we also recently purchased CDs with nursery rhymes in English n Chinese and have learnt happy birthday in Chinese! Loving introducing languages n cultures from all over the world!
Caro says
Although if we win, we want the book in French/English!
Crystal McClean says
Well done! That would be an interesting listen 🙂 We’re back to learning Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer again this week for our party coming up. You’d be truly appolled by my French pronunciation and retention! But they say Quebecois French is different from France French!
Barbara Mojica says
Such versatility…wonderful learning resource!
Crystal McClean says
Thank you for following through from Pinterest, Barbara 🙂 These little books are fantastic indeed.
Carli says
Looks like a really cute book! It would be awesome if they had Hebrew!
Marta ABilingualBaby blog says
Spanish or English, please!
Lina says
What a lovely book with Japanese (right?)!! The illustrations look so charming and cute! Hope I can win a copy! Thank you so much for sharing this cute little book on Kid Lit Blog Hop!
Crystal McClean says
This version was Japanese, yes 🙂 I love that it’s available in so many languages. Good luck!
Aidyl says
Wow! That is so cool! Goodness, I didn’t even realize that there are kids books out there like that! (I’m stopping in from the Kid Lit Blog Hop 😉
Crystal McClean says
They aren’t very common, even when you’re looking for them. I’m glad we can introduce you to a new format 🙂 Have a great week!
Tammy Doiel @creativekkids.com says
What a neat book. There is a public school right by where I live that teaches Japanese as a dual language to all the kids.
Crystal McClean says
How cool! I love that Japanese is such a phonetic language that makes it easy to pronounce, though I have difficulty with the sentence structure, but I keep on trying! I bet those kids would put me to shame!
Missy Homemaker says
That is really cool. Your kids are lucky that you’ve lived in different cultures so that you’re able to introduce these to them.
Crystal McClean says
I have been fortunate though I started travelling a decade later than I’d have liked to, but I needed some confidence first. I hope that my children will be able to travel when they’re older, too.
natasha jayne haslem says
English Please <3
anna marikar says
would love an arabic one