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Graded German Readers: 8 Bilingual Books for Beginners

Imagine yourself reading a riveting German mystery novel about a washed-up detective who lost his wife, and is now seeking vengeance on the people who took her away from him.

Well, that can be you even as a beginner—and without having to keep a German dictionary by your side—thanks to German readers.

In this post, we’ll explore eight German readers you can stick your nose into today.

I’ve also added the CEFR levels of each book—which is a six-level scale that represents different fluency levels. A1-A2 is beginner level, B1-B2 is intermediate and C1-C2 is advanced.

Contents

What’s a Graded German Reader?

A German reader is designed to provide you a wonderful and engaging story, making your learning fun and interesting. However, you should also feel like there’s a teacher next to you at all times. This is achieved by using readers, which provide annotations, dictionaries, quizzes and more.

The overall idea is to give you some of the content in English, along with most of the content in German. German readers build recognition for beginners who may find it a little too intimidating to dive right into a completely German-written book.

They can also serve as a way for more intermediate and advanced learners to brush up on simple grammar and sentences, or to take on complex books that may require them to see translations on the side.

8 Bilingual German Readers for Boosting German Comprehension

1. “Learn German With Stories: Café in Berlin” (A1-A2)Learn German With Stories: Café in Berlin – 10 Short Stories For Beginners

This reader follows a young man from Sicily who moves to Germany and tries to create a new life. Each chapter comes with a German-English dictionary, for checking in with certain lines and vocabulary. You also receive a short quiz after every story to see if you followed along well.

The reader uses what it calls “building blocks” which take paragraphs and sentences instead of simply translating words. This accelerates the learning and assists with making the process more fun and engaging.

2. “Learning German through Storytelling: Mord Am Morgen” (B1-B2)Learning German through Storytelling: Mord Am Morgen - a detective story for German language learners (includes exercises): for intermediate and ... & Momsen) (Volume 1) (German Edition)

“Learning German through Storytelling: Mord Am Morgen” is a solid reader for intermediate learners, since exercises are included and they aren’t exactly for fresh, new beginners.

If you enjoy a good detective series, this is a great reader for you. The page-turning story includes illustrations, exercises, on-demand translations and full vocabulary sections for tough words.

3. “First German Reader for Beginners” (A1-A2)First German Reader for beginners bilingual for speakers of English: First German dual-language Reader for speakers of English with bi-directional ... (Graded German Readers) (German Edition)

This book consists of beginner and early-learner stories, each of which include funny situations, ranging from studying to searching for a job.

I enjoy this reader because it offers rudimentary yet practical stories, since German learners are more likely to apply for a job than they are to engage in a murder mystery.

The author implements the Approved Learning Automatic Remembering Method system, for repeating words in a systematic way and helping you learn quicker. The reader comes with audio tracks for following along and hearing pronunciations.

4. “Best Short Stories: A Dual-Language Book” (B1+)Best Short Stories: A Dual-Language Book (Dover Dual Language German)

Franz Kafka is one of the greatest German writers of all time, so why not learn German by reading his most famous works? Try your hand at stories like “Metamorphosis,” “The Judgement” and “The Country Doctor.”

Each page is written in German, with the English translation on the facing page. There’s something about the facing page translations that makes learning less tedious. It probably has something to do with the fact that you don’t have to fumble around with the pages.

5. Ausgewählte Märchen (Selected Folktales): A Dual-Language Book” (A2+)Selected Folktales/Ausgewählte Märchen: A Dual-Language Book (Dover Dual Language German)

This reader lets you choose from 27 world-famous folk tales from the Grimm brothers. The book has stories like “Cinderella,” “Little Red Riding Hood” and more. Each one is written in German, but the facing page has a complete translation of that particular page.

This reader gives you an advantage, because the stories are recognizable, and they don’t require you to constantly check back with a German-English dictionary.

6. “Short Stories in German” (B1)Short Stories in German: New Penguin Parallel Texts

The “Short Stories in German” reader provides parallel translations for eight short stories. The reader is designed for all experience levels, but it works best for intermediates who have some German knowledge.

Learn with contemporary literature, and use the annotations for assistance. The main reason learners enjoy this reader is because it has a rich combination of diverse themes and styles.

7. “Graded German Reader: Erste Stufe” (A1-A2)Graded German Reader: Erste Stufe (World Languages)

This is one of the best options for first-year German learners. It has annotations and notes throughout the entire text, and you get reading comprehension quizzes to supplement the stories. Footnotes are offered for explanations, and a verb appendix comes in handy for reference.

If you are learning German, or taking a class, yet you aren’t confident in your abilities to pick up a German book without annotations, this has the tools and guides to ease your fears.

8. “Learn German With Stories: Ferien in Frankfurt – 10 Short Stories for Beginners” (A1-A2)Learn German With Stories: Ferien in Frankfurt - 10 German Short Stories for Beginners (Dino lernt Deutsch 2) (German Edition)

If you liked the “Café in Berlin” reader we mentioned above, this is the sequel. The main character, Dino, makes his way to Frankfurt to explore a new city and absorb the atmosphere.

Like the original reader, this one has a full German-English dictionary, it includes some annotations for your assistance and you receive quizzes at the end of the chapters.

What Makes a German Reader Worth Buying

When choosing the ideal readers for German learners, I make sure that they followed most—if not all—of the criteria below:

  • Well-written stories that make sense and reflect German culture
  • Mainly for beginners and intermediates
  • Well-annotated with definitions somewhere on the page
  • Provides quizzes and answers to help you understand if you followed along correctly. This way, when you can’t answer a question properly, you can go back to figure out what needs to be reviewed again.
  • Part of a series. Not all the readers here are in a series, but this is a fun bonus for some readers. If you like the stories you can continue reading. Plus, it helps you stay consistent!

To improve your listening skills too, you can try out a similar immersive approach on FluentU.

FluentU is one of the best websites and apps for learning German the way native speakers really use it. FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

Watch authentic media to simultaneously immerse yourself in the German language and build an understanding of the German culture.

By using real-life videos, the content is kept fresh and current. Topics cover a lot of ground as you can see here:

learn-german-with-videos

Vocabulary and phrases are learned with the help of interactive subtitles and full transcripts.

learn-german-with-subtitled-video-clips

Hovering over or tapping on any word in the subtitles will automatically pause the video and instantly display its meaning. Interesting words you don’t know yet can be added to a to-learn list for later.

learn-german-with-interactive-lessons

For every lesson, a list of vocabulary is provided for easy reference and bolstered with plenty of examples of how each word is used in a sentence.

Your existing knowledge is tested with the help of adaptive quizzes in which words are learned in context.

practice-german-with-adaptive-quizzes

To keep things fresh, FluentU keeps track of the words you’re learning and recommends further lessons and videos based on what you've already studied.

This way, you have a truly personalized learning experience.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

 

 

Now it’s up to you to grab one of these wonderful German readers to engage yourself and make your learning process more fun.

From quizzes to direct translations, a reader serves as the first step to truly understanding the intricacies of a German-written book.

So, dive into one of these intriguing readers and use it to start working your way to German fluency.

For more reading recommendations, check out our post on German children’s books for all ages!

If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to learn German with real-world videos.

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