Short Stories in Spanish for Intermediate Learners: Read for pleasure at your level, expand your vocabulary and learn Spanish the fun way! (Readers)

Reading is an important part of language learning, but it's difficult to find material at an appropriate level that is both interesting and contemporary. Too much of what is available for young adults / adults is based on arcane historical works or long descriptive pieces and you're never going to be able to use the language in any practical situation so it's hard to see why you'd want to spend time reading it. There are some notable exceptions; the Pepa Villa series of books and the Lola Lago, Detective series are both worth reading / listening to. The books by Paco Ardit are also worth considering, although the lack of audio and translations makes them of more limited use, in my view. To this short list comes Olly Richards, with his Spanish Short Stories series. I have read the two beginner-level books and now this intermediate level collection and I continue to be impressed. They are not great works of literature - they aren't meant to be - but they are extremely useful learning resources. They are specifically structured to help the reader to read and in doing so the author also helps the reader to learn more about the language and how it is used. Short chapters, summaries, questions to test understanding, contemporary language, vocabulary summaries, lots of speech and a controlled use of vocabulary that helps you to learn meaning from context - all of these features help take the reader forward. Olly understands what he is trying to achieve (he describes his approach in the introduction to the book), he understands how he wants you to use the book and he has designed the text to support that way of working. In doing so he has produced something that will benefit any language learner.

The book has interesting and fun stories, and it definitely improved my Spanish when I was reading it consistently. It has good vocabulary and common verb tenses too. Even though I am I can understand Spanish and I’m in intermediate level there are words that I still didn’t know, so that makes the book even better.

I've read only one story so far but found it easy to understand but with enough new phrases and idioms to make it a useful learning experience. The story I read was up to date and easy to relate to everyday life.

The level is right for me. I bought this because I am intermediate level, and it’s just right - I can understand the text overall but there is new vocabulary to learn and checks on your understanding. The story is interesting and it feels like a proper book but with shorter sentences. Highly recommend.

This is the third book in the series and this one is aimed at B1-B2 standard, which is perfect for me. The stories are simple but interesting and the most important aspect is that the Spanish is graded, so it's at exactly the right level. It introduces new vocabulary in a structured manner and the grammar is also perfectly matched to the level. I love these books and this one is helping me to take my Spanish further. Recommend.

I must admit at the outset that I have not finished reading all of the stories in this book. I have, however, read enough to become hooked and I made a promise to myself that I would not rush the process. I have been enthralled by those I have read and wish to savour the remaining ones. I find that this is Spanish almost exactly at my level and although there are lots of words I don't know I can almost always work out the overall meaning. The information about the best way to use the book was extremely useful. I hope there is another collection of stories for Intermediate Learners in the pipeline.

Like the other books in this series, they seem to have been written by someone with good language skills (as in, writing in foreign languages) but rubbish storytelling abilities.

From looking at the first two stories, it appears to be set at the level stated (B1-B2). There are new vocabulary, new sayings and new structures to be learned. The stories are interesting and modern

My son likes it

Really excellent book to help improve one's Spanish

I found many mistakes in the book but it was still VERY MUCH WORTH IT. The stories were interesting and graded to my level appropriately, I seeming to increase in difficulty as the book went on. Would recommend.

Love the stories - they are fun, but not t babyish at all. Good practice for vocabulary and reinforcing tenses. I also like to read aloud sometime s for speaking practice.

Bon livre pour apprendre l'espagnol, petites histoires à 4 chapitres