Rafa’s First Day

Rafa’s First Day is a paid English–Vietnamese bilingual picture book for young children and families who want an easy story to read together. It is also useful for beginner Vietnamese learners who prefer short, repeating sentences and lots of context from the illustrations.

You get a printed story with English and Vietnamese on the page, following Rafa as he starts school and stops speaking, then slowly opens up with his new friends. The theme is gentle and relatable for kids, especially around first day nerves and selective mutism, and Mantra Lingua also provides free teacher notes on their site.

One standout feature is that this edition is TalkingPEN enabled. If you already own a compatible Mantra Lingua audio pen, you can tap the page to hear the story in both languages as you follow along. If you do not have the pen, it still works fine as a normal book, but you will not get built-in listening support.