Easy Arabic Reader by Jane Wightwick, Mahmoud Gaafar

Review by: Grace Landsberg

The short
For Arabic language learners who are able to read basic sentences, the book offers a collection of short stories and questions for comprehension.

The long
The Easy Arabic Reader offers those with conversational Arabic skills/beginner-level (basic sentences) reading skills a collection of short stories. Following the stories are structured mixed Arabic-English sections to test comprehension and understanding. Some of the sections to test understanding include multiple choice questions, fill in the blank questions, and word puzzles. All of the audio recordings to the stories can be found online.

To read or not to read?
Read if you are eager to pick up a pen and engage with a textbook to translate, decipher, and comprehend a series of stories. If you studied from Al-Kitaab with Maha at any point, this book will be nostalgic. If you want to pick up a pen and work on Arabic, this book can be satisfying to methodically work through. The topics are relevant to everyday life, so the reader will learn useful words and phrases to converse in Arabic with.