Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

"The Going to Bed Book" is a favorite of my little nephew. I've read it to him since he was an infant ... but he doesn't know almost any English. So you can imagine I looked forward to the Spanish version, so that I could read both to him for some bilingual cuddle time. BIG MISTAKE! This translation is one of the worst I've ever seen in terms of capturing the spirit of the original. Sure, in literal terms, the following express the same dictionary meaning: (English) "They hang their towels on the wall / and find pajamas, big and small." (Spanish, back-translated) "They hang their towels on the wall / and look for pajamas, big and little, as you can see." (Cuelgan las toallas en la pared / y buscan piyamas grandes y pequeñas, como se ve.) Gone is the rhyme. Gone is the use of small, familiar words so the child can pretend to "read" along. There's an occasional rhyme ("resquicio" / "ejercicio"), but for the most part it's a charmless and clumsy butchering of the text we loved so much. You may think it's asking too much to expect a translated version to be as good as the original. It's not. Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham is delightful in Spanish. Sandra Boynton's own Moo, Baa, La, La, La has a Spanish translation that's as precious and easy to read as you could ever want (see my review of Muú, Beee, Así Fue). It's tricky work and requires careful substitution, but it can be done if a company does what is necessary to secure a good translation. This time they didn't -- maybe next time they will.