Yeah, I thought it was a great idea, but when I actually started looking for a couple in Hindi (using Amazon's 'look inside' preview) it seemed like they give you pretty complex grammar relative to the uselessly basic vocabulary.
Which does make sense for children, in English for example learning as a first language 'and on the dog's log, a cat was sitting gracefully' (mental block for a more basic adverb than 'gracefully' here) might be perfectly natural and simple, but for an adult ESL learner... it's not great. At the point where an adult's learning vocabulary like 'dog', 'log', (which er.. actually I don't know in Hindi) and 'cat', they don't want awkward grammar like past continuous 'was sitting', less common adverb position, subordinate clauses. Better would be 'a cat gracefully sat on the dog's log' grammar, but with more interesting vocabulary. Not because you won't ever say dog or cat, but because by the time you're reading to advance your second language you already know those words. It's easier to learn a different language for an idea you already know a way of communicating than it is for a child to comprehend meaning at the same time as learning the word.
And also more simply, they're targeted at children, and not interesting. It would be great if there were easy-reading second language books aimed at adults (in terms of subject matter / story line, and vocabulary as above) - but I suppose it's just too niche, especially for less popular second languages.
Which does make sense for children, in English for example learning as a first language 'and on the dog's log, a cat was sitting gracefully' (mental block for a more basic adverb than 'gracefully' here) might be perfectly natural and simple, but for an adult ESL learner... it's not great. At the point where an adult's learning vocabulary like 'dog', 'log', (which er.. actually I don't know in Hindi) and 'cat', they don't want awkward grammar like past continuous 'was sitting', less common adverb position, subordinate clauses. Better would be 'a cat gracefully sat on the dog's log' grammar, but with more interesting vocabulary. Not because you won't ever say dog or cat, but because by the time you're reading to advance your second language you already know those words. It's easier to learn a different language for an idea you already know a way of communicating than it is for a child to comprehend meaning at the same time as learning the word.
And also more simply, they're targeted at children, and not interesting. It would be great if there were easy-reading second language books aimed at adults (in terms of subject matter / story line, and vocabulary as above) - but I suppose it's just too niche, especially for less popular second languages.