When you want to read in both German and English, though, there's a great option: bilingual books!

Reading bilingual books and inferring the vocabulary and grammar is a far superior method of language learning than traditional memorization. It is also much less painful.

Waldemar Bonsels (21 February 1880 – 31 July 1952) was a German writer.

Waldemar Bonsels's most famous work is the children's book "The Adventures of Maya the Bee". This work served the basis for a Japanese animated television series named Maya the Honey Bee in the mid-1970s, as well as a Croatian opera for children written by Bruno Bjelinski, making Bonsels work known to even a great audience.

The stories revolve around a little bee named Maya and her friends Willy the bee, Flip the grasshopper, Mrs. Cassandra (Maya's teacher), and many other insects and other creatures. The book depicts Maya's development from an adventurous youngster to a responsible adult member of bee society.