I have some friends there yes. Most of them are europeans and not Germans so learning the language by speaking with them is gonna be a bit hard.
The fact that in german you pronounce the letters in a consistent way makes it easy to learn like Spanish.
I also got a book to read along with the German course I am doing and it helps a lot.
Take a look at this series. I think they are aimed for A1- A2. I picked up the first 3 to refresh my German a couple of years ago and I loved them. Easy read and some vocabulary explanations included.
They’re books specifically created for beginners: Learn German With Stories: Café in Berlin - 10 Short Stories For Beginners (Dino lernt Deutsch) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1492399493/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_M692X338DGSJCGW3VQPS
Have you tried looking for easy readers designed for language students instead of children's books? A lot of people think that because books are written for children, they will be simpler, but children's books actually use a lot of complex language. If you search for "German easy reader" on Amazon, you will come up with a lot of stuff designed for people learning the language. I would start there rather than with children's books. My colleague who teaches German uses a German easy reader in her classes, and I think it is this one or something very similar: https://www.amazon.com/Learn-German-Stories-Berlin-Beginners/dp/1492399493/ She said it was really funny.
There is a series called Cafe in Berlin, they are really funny books, they use slang and are quite cheap on amazon. I found them really helpful.
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https://www.amazon.co.uk/Learn-German-Stories-Berlin-Beginners/dp/1492399493
If you're really just starting out, books from the Dino lernt Deutsch series such as Café in Berlin are a good idea. My husband read those quite early on in his German-learning-journey. They're quite simple and short so you'll have quick successes and that'll motivate you to continue. My husband also quite enjoyed the little stories. And there's little quizzes at the end of each story (plus English explanations for certain words, I think) so you can test how well you actually understood the story.
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If you're a bit more advanced than this, there's the Easy Readers (DaF) series that takes popular German books/ classics such as Die Wolke and puts them into a simplified form so you can read the story but they'll use less and easier words. The books are fairly thin too so you'll again have a quick feeling of success and motivation. They also come in different levels depending on how good your German is.
I love these short stories. They are perfect for beginners and I reread them frequently.
Children's books might be helpful in a way. I think with just duolingo you might be able to start tackling stuff like "german learning" books. https://www.amazon.com/Learn-German-Stories-Berlin-Beginners/dp/1492399493
I own that book and it's very slow/simple. He also makes "choose your own adventure" books which I think are more difficult. I own one but haven't gotten into it yet.
There was also a post recently that had a bunch of resources in it https://www.reddit.com/r/German/comments/4symbk/82_german_youtube_channels_to_practice_listening/