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Children’s books in French

  Tags: Children | Book | French
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading Post Reply
12 messages over 2 pages: 1
Stelle
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
tobefluent.com
Joined 3903 days ago

949 posts - 1686 votes 
Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 9 of 12
27 July 2013 at 3:50pm | IP Logged 
Le petit Nicolas and Le petit prince are both classics. Can't go wrong with either one
of those.

If you're interested in branching out and reading some entertaining present-day French-
Canadian authors, I can recommend:

Mélanie Watt for picture books
She's a writer/illustrator and her books are absolutely hilarious. I especially love
the Frisson l'écureuil series (translated by Mélanie to English as well, under the name
Scaredy Squirrel). Kids love them - but there's a lot there for adults too. I actually
use them in my adult French courses.

Danielle Simard for easy illustrated chapter books
My fourth- and fifth-graders (immersion students, so reading at a slightly lower level
than they would be in English) really loved her series that follows the days of the
week, about a little boy named Julien. The first one is called Le champion du lundi.
All of her books are very readable, though.

Alain Bergeron, also for easy illustrated chapter books
One of his books - Zzzut! - is about a little boy who can't do an oral presentation in
class because his zipper gets stuck in the bathroom. Ridiculous, right? Well, this book
made the rounds of my all-male adult French class. Everyone wanted to read it - and
everyone loved it, even the self-professed non-reader who hadn't read a book in any
language since high school 25 years earlier.

Dominique Demers
She writes all levels of children's books. I especially love her series that begins
with La nouvelle maîtresse - about a very unorthodox substitute teacher who takes over
a class. It's aimed at a slightly higher age group than the books I mentioned by
Bergeron and Simard. This series is very popular with the 'tween crowd in French
Canada. They made a movie out of the first book a few years ago.
2 persons have voted this message useful



freakyaye
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 4597 days ago

107 posts - 152 votes 

 
 Message 10 of 12
27 July 2013 at 4:21pm | IP Logged 
Merci pour vos suggestions, je vais tous les essayer!
Ps, is my français ok?
1 person has voted this message useful





songlines
Pro Member
Canada
flickr.com/photos/cp
Joined 4968 days ago

729 posts - 1056 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French
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 Message 12 of 12
05 August 2013 at 11:58pm | IP Logged 
erenko wrote:
I wouldn't say it's a children's book, but it's very simple and very good:
'Le grand cahier' by Ágota Kristóf. The book's been translated in more than 30 languages. An etext and an
audiobook are available online.


I hope you don't mind my adding a qualifier (despite not having yet read the book), but from online reviews
etc., it definitely doesn't sound like a children's book at all.   From what I can gather, it deals
with the "savagery of war", and is about twin brothers, themselves victims of war and displacement, who - in
order to survive - themselves become monsters. If this were a film, warnings about sado-masochism,
bestiality and murder (among other things) might seem to be applicable.

Which would not preclude it being a very good book, and worth tackling (perhaps for an older teen or adult
readership?). - Comparisons with William Golding's The Lord of the Flies have been made.   But given
the topic of this thread (and some of the preceding titles, which may have more general rather than just child-
specific appeal), a bit more description (rather than just the somewhat mild disclaimer in the post) might have
been / might be useful.


Edited by songlines on 06 August 2013 at 3:26pm



2 persons have voted this message useful



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