First Italian Reader for beginners (Graded Italian Readers) Paperback – January 15, 2012

To begin with, I actually do like this book very much. It is probably best to use this book though with another course, or at least, with a decent grammar supplement. I bought it to reinforce basic vocabulary and practice translation from L2 to L1. True, the dialogs are a bit far fetched but I don't care. To me though and worth noting, is the unusual number of translations issues. So far, I am finding that the English text appears to be perhaps edited by a non-native English speaker. The English text is often awkward and sometimes incorrect. For example, the book title says, "....bilingual for speakers of English", when it should read "........with bilingual English text". It's not a deal breaker by any means but one might need to reparaphrase a word or sentence or two (per chapter). The vocabulary lists too, need to be watched for occasional errors. If there seems to be a question, I often consult an online dictionary for an example, ie. [...] ***Having said this, by being attentive though, is how we learn a new language. As a result, it's going a bit slower than expected for me, but I'm more involved and it's making for a better foundation. I've learned that if one rushes language learning, it's soon forgotten.What I DO particularly like, and the reason that I have both books, is that the online audio available is EXCELLENT. Although MP3 files, it is a very clean, clear, feminine voice with the entire book's word lists and accompanying dialogs downloadable from their website.Without the occasional quirks, it would give it 5 stars. If just starting out though, you also might consider something to learn grammar along the way.

I studied Italian in high school and college, but it has been a long while since I have practiced at all. When my daughter decided to take it at school, I started to look for a resource so that I could brush up and help her. I found the "First Italian Reader" and bought it to brush up on my Italian, and it really helped me remember a lot of my Italian and I learned some new words as well! What I didn't expect but is a huge bonus: it is also an excellent tool for my daughter. She was able to use this book to learn both words and phrases and it really helped prepare her for Italian I at school. She definitely had a head start on her classmates! The tool that I really enjoyed was the Italian alphabet page at the beginning of the book and it really helped my daughter with her early Italian language acquisition.

I am moving to Italy! This book was great to start on the basic alphabet and then the stories teach you vocabulary. Very nice!

This is a superb method to learn Italian in parallel with any standard textbook. For each chapter, I listen to the high quality MP3 while reading the story in Italian. Then, I try to speak the Italian. Then, I read each sentence in English next to the same sentence in Italian. Finally, I read the English version and try to come up with the Italian words on my own.The Italian speaker on the MP3s is terrific...her enunciation and pace. I would prefer better alignment of the sentences and paragraphs in Italian and English.

at the beginning i didn't like the book, the dialogues seemed too simple and boring... but later, the stories become really funny and exciting :) plus now i understood that "boring dialogues" were really helpful in learning language patterns.

If you are studying Italian, get this book. It has a lot of vocabulary attached to stories...good practice for understanding sentence formation.

I have found this book extremely helpful. It suits my style of learning, beginning with very simple sentences, gradually increasing vocabulary. Just like learning to read at junior school. I was so impressed with this book I purchased the 2nd book even though not finished the first, to be sure of having it!

This style where the words are introduced is great! There are a few spelling mistakes that make it a bit difficult when you are learning, you wonder whether it is you or the book that is wrong. In this case, the book is wrong a few times.

I liked it.

ユーモアセンスたっぷりで毎回楽しみに読んでました。どうせ言語を覚えるのなら笑って覚えるほうが記憶にのこって良いです。続編が欲しい

Lots of different stories, most quite amusing and all enjoyable. This book is a great accompaniment to use while learning Italian online.

This is ideal as being on my Kindle I can take it anywhere with me. I am having Italian lessons so this is ideal to get more practice when not with my teacher.

It looks good , I haven't used it as yet.