Kiki el Mono and the Dinosaurs: a story about friendship

A bilingual picture book in English and Spanish for ages 2 to 5: Kiki el Mono meets Trici, a little triceratops the big dinosaurs say is too small to play. Plus five Spanish words from the book worth learning yourself.

Kiki el Mono, a cartoon monkey with a green bandana, with his arm around Trici, a small teal triceratops, on an orange background.

Once upon a time, a little monkey named Kiki el Mono followed some giant footprints all the way to the land of the dinosaurs.

There he meets Trici. She's a baby triceratops, and the big dinosaurs say she's too small to play.

So she sits behind a fern and watches.

The lesson inside

This is the first Kiki el Mono book, and its lesson is friendship. The small, everyday kind. You notice who's on their own, and you walk over.

Kiki el Mono doesn't give a speech about it. He comes closer, smiles, and asks one question: "Do you want to play with me?"

Later in the day, the big dinosaurs' ball rolls into a tiny cave, and they're all too big to fit. Guess who's just the right size.

Every page has one picture and one rhyme, in English and in Spanish. The book comes in two editions with the same pictures, English on top or Spanish on top, and both are on the Kiki el Mono page. If you missed where the little monkey comes from, that story is here.

Five words worth learning yourself

These are from the picture-word page at the back of the book, and they're good ones for any learner:

Notice pequeña ends in a because Trici is a girl. Kiki el Mono would be pequeño.

A small experiment for this week

The book's question page asks: ¿Con quién te gusta jugar? Who do you like to play with?

If you read it with a little one, ask them and wait for the answer. If you're reading for yourself, answer it out loud in one Spanish sentence about your own week: Me gusta jugar con... or Me gusta hablar con... One sentence is the whole exercise. If you want more Spanish at your own level, the free book is a good next page.

¡Sigue adelante!

Ariel

Frequently asked

What is Kiki el Mono and the Dinosaurs about?
Kiki el Mono follows giant footprints to the land of the dinosaurs and meets Trici, a little triceratops the big dinosaurs say is too small to play. He asks her to play with him, and later her size turns out to be exactly what everyone needs.
Is there a Spanish edition of Kiki el Mono and the Dinosaurs?
Yes. It's called Kiki el Mono y los dinosaurios. It has the same pictures and the same two languages, with the Spanish line on top of each page.
What age is Kiki el Mono and the Dinosaurs for?
Children from 2 to 5. It's one short rhyming story, read aloud in a few minutes, with picture words, questions and coloring pages at the back.

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