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This is a good book for begineer students of the Italian language, but, with a bit of imagination, it can be also useful to students who have comand of the language
It leaves space for you to write in, but I like to use a separate loose leaf paper.The reason why I gave this book 4/5 stars instead of 5/5 because I found the same exact book at my college library but with a CD. I bought this book to keep my Italian fresh after taking one entire year of Italian at my college.The first few chapters were easy to understand, and as I continued I noticed the vocabulary was getting tough as well as the grammar. She goes to Italy with her family and slowly learns more about Italy and the Italian language, which I think is the most brilliant idea for a foreign language book. I liked how this book had ideal answers in the back of the book so you can make sure you're understanding the question and know how to answer it. Oral is a big part of learning so try searching for the same book but with the CD accompaniment. What better way to learn Italian than learning it alongside the main character.
I'm the type that can read and write a different language but as soon as you try talking with me. As you read from cover to cover the text will become advanced.As you notice, you're following a character who's also learning Italian. The story is on the disc so you can listen along as you read, which is helpful when you get to the dialogue portion of the book. So the vocab and grammar the main character learns will later be used by her and her friends, which is a good drill.Between chapters there will be questions in Italian with spaces for you to answer in Italian, which was helpful. Sometimes there's crossword puzzles, fill in the blanks, and true or false questions. I'll blank out, lol.
Otherwise, I recommend this book to every beginner-intermediates.
The Easy Italian Reader is a very good product because you can listen to and read the text simultaneously. However, I think it should be titled Intermediate Italian Reader because the text and vocabulary is too difficult for beginners.
that precede the nouns, to help the student learn the gender of the noun. I'm learning Italian with the help of a tutor. This book omits them.The questions that follow readings are of the sort teachers ask to see if the students have completed their homework, not the sort that engage the students with the reading or facilitate familiarity with the language.If you are seeking an easy beginner's reader, I do not know of any. I bought this book as an intermediate text, after I'd completed all the exercises in a book for beginners. I was not impressed with the way the readings and exercises are presented; the lessons are not created in a way that would make the information easy to learn.For example, a vocabulary list in a beginner's foreign language text should include the articles (il, la, i, le, etc). If you are ready for an intermediate-advanced book, I recommend the Easy Readers series (try an amazon search for "Easy Readers Italian"). These are paperbacks of Italian literature, made accessible to language students through vocab lists and illustrations.
There is a part of the book which deserves 5 stars for me. I guess a teenager may give that five stars, butfor me two is appropriate. It is about the history of Italy. Another large part, maybe half or a quarter, is about "boy meets girl" type of thing. Finally, it should be considered an intermediate reader, not an easy one. Someone starting out in Italian would be upset, and maybe even an intermediate one would be frustrated.
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