A fun way to start learning the language is by beginning simple with children’s books.  The benefit of this is that you will start to see simple language structure in use and basic but vital vocabulary.  And it’s fun!

A series of books I really like are the Kikker books by Max Velthuijs.  Kikker is a little frog (de kikker : the frog) who has adventures with other animals.  Usually there is a moral to the story, such as “Be nice to people even if they are different than you.”  I think this is pretty standard for children’s books, but the stories are very sweet, and the illustrations are incredibly endearing.

Kikker is the main character, and he’s basically just your normal, average, everyday talking frog.  Try reading the following description of Kikker, from the official Kikker website, before you read the translation below it.

Kikker
Iedereen is dol op Kikker, de vrolijke, lieve hoofdpersoon uit de boeken van Max Velthuijs. Eigenlijk is Kikker heel gewoon: Soms heeft hij het koud, soms is hij bang en toch is hij een held. En hij is zelfs wel eens verliefd! Maar hij is nooit saai. Samen met zijn vriendjes Varkentje, Eend en Haas beleeft hij meer avonturen dan wij allemaal bij elkaar.
http://www.kikkervriendjes.nl/index.html

Everyone is crazy about Kikker, the cheerful, sweet leading character from the books by Max Velthuijs.  Kikker is actually very normal: Sometimes he is cold, sometimes he is afraid and yet he is a hero.  And he is sometimes even in love!  But he is never boring.  Together with his little friends Varkentje (Piglet), Eend (Duck) and Haas (Hare) he experiences more adventures than all of us put together.