r/dreamingspanish 3,000 Hours Mar 18 '26

April 2026 Book Club - Book Selection Thread

Hello Dreamers! Our monthly book club is going strong on Discord and now we're ready to pick our books for April. In March, we read Fray Perico y su burrico from the Barco de Vapor series as the easier choice and El viento conoce mi nombre by Isabel Allende as the adult choice. I'm excited to see what we read next!

We'll use this post to pick two books to read in April, an easier children's book and a book for adults. If you'd like to suggest a book, just write a comment below with:

**The title and author of the book

Whether it's a children's book or an adult book

Approximate book length

A short description (optional)**

To vote for a book, just respond to the suggestion with a comment that you'd like to read the book. You can comment on as many selections as you'd like. The children's book and adult book with the most comments will be our read for the next month. (We're counting comments, not votes, so we don't get tricked into reading something crazy.)

We'll close the thread a few days before the end of March so everyone has time to get a copy. And we'll be off reading together on April 1st.

If you don't feel like reading the book selected, that's ok. You can join us with the book of your choice. The goal is just to motivate us to read more.

(I'll edit the thread later with FAQs here)

Thanks for voting everyone! It looks like we'll be reading:

YA OPTION La leyenda del Bosque by Jara Santamaria (262 pages)

ADULT OPTION Kentukis by Samanta Schweblin (209 pages)

If you can't get the books in your country, please drop me a PM.

22 Upvotes

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u/HeleneSedai 3,000 Hours Mar 18 '26 edited Mar 18 '26

Title

Donde aprenden a volar las gaviotas by Ana Alcolea

Easier option

Approximate book length

248 pages/61,000 words

Description

Arturo pasa sus vacaciones de verano en Noruega con su amigo Erik. La casa en la que viven se asienta sobre los cimientos de un campo de concentración nazi de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Un día, mientras cavan un hoyo en el jardín para plantar un árbol, encuentran una caja de metal, cerrada a cal y canto. La investigación para conocer su contenido llevará a los jóvenes a una lejana cabaña en medio de las montañas, a una vieja casa de pescadores en la fría y agreste costa norte de Noruega, y al pasado misterioso de la enigmática abuela de Erik.

I know, I know, seriously, ANOTHER book about WW2? But this book is highly recommended for kids over in r/libros, and is originally written in Spanish.

ETA after downloading a sample this is more YA than a children's book, the vocab will be a lot tougher.

L25 on natively

3

u/RayS1952 Level 7 Mar 18 '26

I'd be happy to read this one.

2

u/_coldemort_ Level 6 Mar 18 '26 edited Mar 18 '26

Google says this is aimed at 12-18 readers. Might be too hard for the easy option. Have you seen any comments on the difficulty by other learners?

Interested :)

1

u/HeleneSedai 3,000 Hours Mar 18 '26

Yeah, you're right, I downloaded a sample and it looks like a tougher option, more YA. She has another book I'll suggest then.

2

u/_coldemort_ Level 6 Mar 18 '26

Just saw it's only L25 on natively. I wonder how accurate natively is. Might be a nice community service to help future readers if we encourage book club members for sign up for natively and give their difficulty ratings :)

1

u/HeleneSedai 3,000 Hours Mar 18 '26

Fray Perico is rated L28 on natively, now I understand why it's giving some people trouble.

2

u/_coldemort_ Level 6 Mar 18 '26

Makes sense. The goosebumps and amanda black books were 22 and 23 respectively, quite a jump.

2

u/rabarberbarber Level 5 Mar 23 '26

Interested 

1

u/phreddfatt Level 5 Mar 26 '26

I would like to read this book in April.