Francois Savigny

This is an elementary primer for children learning to speak French and is thus written nearly entirely in French. It contains three fairy tales that are familiar to many children: Little Red Hen, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and The Boy and His Burro. These common stories were chosen so that English speakers would have a frame of reference about the story's plot and it would therefore be a little easier to decode unfamiliar French words. Combined with the illustrations, this plan seems to work out rather well. If a reader gets stuck, a very comprehensive glossary at the back of the book helps to bail them out. However, please note that this is not a bilingual book, as I was expecting (i.e., one in which the text is written twice on every page, once in French and then a second time in English translation). Being that French is not as commonly taught in the U.S. as some other languages, I can't see this book having a huge audience. Nonetheless, if you are one of the few teaching children to speak French, this is a good resource to have in your repertoire.… (más)