Victor's Adventures in Spain: A Parallel Text and Audio Workbook: Las Aventuras de Víctor en España Paperback – Illustrated, 30 Nov. 2014

I have been trying to learn Spanish for a while now, with little success. Finally, I have found a book that meets my needs perfectly! I have followed Lightspeed Spanish with Gordon & Cynthia on You Tube and Spotify for a while, finding their presentation engaging and interesting.This book pulls everything together in an ideal way for me and although I was initially reluctant to spend £25 on it, it’s proving well worth the money. The grammar is explained very simply and clearly and is always relevant to the text.My interest in learning Spanish is to enable me to talk to my Spanish friends, who happen to be English teachers, in their own language and to be able to strike up conversations with Spanish people when on holiday. This book is giving me the confidence to do that.A few of the criticisms I have seen in other reviews seem to be nit-picking, proving that you can never please all of the people all of the time. However, if you are going to buy just one decent book to help you get to grips with the language and have the confidence to communicate, then I would highly recommend this one.

I held off from buying this book when it first came out as lots of the early reviews seemed a bit too positive. I figured that the majority of the early comments would be ex-students or friends and family of the authors trying to boost ratings and push sales. Anyway, as soon as I spotted the "look inside" feature I bought it, and I'm happy with my purchase.Here's my opinion, and where I'm coming from as a learner:I've been hovering around a B1/ B2 level of Spanish for a long time & I'd got to the point where I'd done all the Practice Makes Perfect series of books and exhausted what is out there in terms of podcasts and other resources. I'd say that this book is suited to intermediate learners., The text is engaging & the combined audio leads to a better level of comprehension.The few reservations that I have stem from the book trying to be all things to all people. I think that beginners would struggle to comprehend how to formulate the Spanish text into coherent sentences, especially later on. (When verbs can have multiple uses, some kind of clarification would have been handy, with learning point close to hand).Watering down the grammar was commendable, a clear attempt to demystify something that for a lot of Brits only adds to their problems when learning a second language (largely due to state schools not having taught grammar since the mid 60's)As others have said the book is huge, it could have been smaller. That being said, for those that like to make notes, they'll have plenty of room in which to do so. The audio comes from a download rather than a c.d. Being able to pair the audio with a Kindle version of the book would have been a nice option, then I could have kept it all on my iPad.Finally, there are a few typos:Chapter 32) text says Madre - Os lo agradecemos. Audio says Os lo agradezcoLesson 25) Aduve instead of Anduve (answer key)Lesson 28) Estas casa son grandes instead of Estas casas (answer key)The book is a first edition, the faults that I found didn't impinge on my enjoyment. I really am looking forward to the next in the series. When is it coming? Soon I hope, Congrats, keep them coming!

An excellent book for anyone learning Spanish. I am nearing the end of Victor's Adventures in Spain and am looking forward to reading about more of his adventures in the next book. At the beginning of the book the Spanish is fairly simple and Cynthia reads the story slowly and clearly in the audio download, then as you progress through the chapters the Spanish gradually becomes more difficult and Cynthia reads at her normal speaking speed. I have been using the book to practice my speaking and listening skills by first listening to a chapter without looking at the text, then listening again whilst reading, stopping the audio every sentence or two to read aloud what I have just heard. After that I listen to the whole chapter again without looking at the text and find I can follow it better than the first time. Between each chapter is a short section explaining some of the grammar, always in a way that makes it easy to understand, and a few exercises. I highly recommend all of Gordon and Cynthia's books and Lightspeed Spanish to anyone who wants to learn or improve their Spanish.

This book is exactly what I needed to improve my Spanish. After a couple of years of evening classes, I realized that my speaking (pronunciation) and listening skills were very poor, and needed some serious investment of time. This book excellently covers both areas, as well as providing useful vocabulary and an interesting story. I've successfully managed to incorporate using this book into my morning routine. Over a cup of tea I read aloud (yep, read aloud) a chapter of the story; it only takes 5 minutes. Then, in the car to work, I listen to Cynthia reading the same chapter paying attention to the words I struggle to pronounce. Repeat for a couple of days, and then move on to the next chapter. Cynthia has a clear, lovely accent; I would be happy to listen to her reading out a shopping list. With a few minutes each (workday) morning, after a month or so, the improvement in my pronunciation was obvious. Because the story is repeating common words and phrases, my own basic conversation has become more assured. And I have greater confidence to talk in class, and that's good as well. There was one issue. Cynthia starts the book speaking very slow, and speeds up to near normal day-to-day speech by the end of the book at chapter 32; around chapter 18 the speed was becoming too fast for me to follow. No problem; I used some audio software that I have which has a clever feature of being able to slow down the mp3 without changing the frequency nor distortion. So I slowed the speech by 10%, and at chapter 26, another 10%. This is good for me now, and sometime in the future I have the full speed versions to try. Overall a great book and perfect for my needs, thank you Gordon and Cynthia.

This is an absolutely great book and worth the money. Well written, love the idioms and the videos. Well Done Gordon & Cynthia

Easy, clear and worth the purchase.

OK, at this point I'm about halfway through the book. I am really enjoying it. I find the "Adventure", the story engaging. I'm an intermediate Spanish learner. Not a great deal of new vocabulary here for me, a few words here and there. Also, not a great deal of new grammar, but I have found some interesting things that I didn't know before. I need to improve my listening skills and I find that Cynthia reads at a good learning pace, beginners will have little problem following the story. In my case I read the story first, then listen to it, finally listen to the chapter and read it as well to make sure I'm getting everything. Then do the short grammar lesson at the end of each chapter.If I were to make a suggestion to someone starting out in Spanish it would be to have another book with other exercises and examples handy. No one book does it all. In my own case sometimes I will refer to two or three books, and then maybe even to a lesson on YouTube to make sure I understand the concept (and even then sometimes I don't quite get it!). The strength in Victor's Adventures is the audio and the story. You get to hear how Spanish is used in real life situations and that is invaluable. And there's a short grammar exercise. I'd suggest a companion book to perhaps flesh out the grammar a little more, maybe Dorothy Richmond's "Basic Spanish" in the Practice Makes Perfect Series of Spanish books. And I'm sure there are others as well. No audio with these books, but more explanations on the grammar and more exercises. So maybe, depending on where you are in your pursuit of Spanish, listen to a chapter in Victor's Adventure, read the grammar, do the exercise, and then go to that same lesson in Basic Spanish or another book and repeat. Then finally listen to the explanation of the same subject on LightSpeed Spanish on YouTube (or Professor Jason has some excellent lessons as well). Listening to the concept explained in various ways has the effect of better fixing the idea in one's memory (or so I would argue).None of this is meant to be a criticism of Victor's Adventures in Spain. I am throughly enjoying the book. I've gone through half of it in about six days (I also get to babysit grandchildren and have a life to lead). I'm an intermediate Spanish student, but have still learned a few new grammar facts, and the listening is a great exercise as well as being engaging and entertaining. Buy the book, it is well worth the money just to listen to the dialogue and learn from that. Also, on a technical point. It was easy to download the lessons. There are also chapters devoted to Spanish idioms. I have them on my iPad and iPhone. It is easy to listen to them while walking or doing other things that don't involve full concentration (don't cross busy streets while focusing on Spanish!).The above was written about five or six months ago. I finished the book, the audio, the lessons. Now, today, months later I decide to go for a brisk walk (I do everyday), and relisten to Victor's Adventures. Of course I know the storyline, but I understood virtually every word of the dialogue. I have many books that teach Spanish. My wife might say it is an obcession, I prefer to think I am a passionate learner. But if you know some basics, Victor's Adventures can move you to a different level.For teachers, there's romance, some fighting, but this book and the learning dialogues belong in your classroom. I would think this is written in a way your students could relate to.

I'm annoyed that I can't sit down and consume this book (and the second one) all in one sitting, because I bought it for the learning, not for the story. And yet, the story is so compelling, I don't want to stop!I am a middle-aged absolute beginner (never too old, my friends) who discovered Lightspeed Spanish AFTER buying a different program that I am pleased to have because you do need more than one source...but everything about Cynthia and Gordon's teaching style in general is hilarious and lighthearted and about dogs and kids and bike rides and you end up feeling like you know them. Victor's Adventures In Spain is no exception. You will adore Victor and you will adore the people in his world. You will find yourself immersed in his adventures while you learn, and in fact you will forget you're in it to learn it (seriously). As someone who teaches young kids, I know how valuable that can be.As an absolute beginner, I am going slowly through each chapter three times because I want to pick up on tricky grammar now, lest I wallow in frustration down the road. But a person really can approach this book in countless ways, which is part of its charm. You can try different techniques. You can go back and reread the whole thing with fresh understanding once you've gained a little confidence. You can listen to the whole thing, then read. Or vice versa. You can read it in English and then Spanish. If you're up for a fun challenge, you can read the English and translate it into Spanish. It's not in the least bit regimented, which is handy for those of us who prefer a free-formed angle to our learning.Bite sized chapters, bite sized lessons, and a giant supply of useful audio, including a couple of catchy tunes to help with those pesky "to be" verbs. It's got everything. Really.Do I expect this book to make me the most fluent kid on the block? No, I do not. But I am planning a visit to Spain next year and the confidence I glean from these brilliant books will help make my visit more full and enjoyable. THAT'S what I'm after, and I'm grateful to Cynthia and Gordon for their help.

In my opinion, whilst the book is good it is very expensive and written in "Spanish" spanish. There are other books out there just as good and a lot cheaper. However, the explanations of grammar points are short and sweet and easily understood.