Very attractive, very useful, 11 Dec 2002

The appeal of this bright and colourful book is immediate, especially to fans of Walace and Gromit like me. All those busy scenes full of carefully modelled people and objects, printed on nice and smooth heavyweight paper! There is a lot to look at and plenty of opportunity for talking and reviewing or introducing more vocabulary than is actually labelled on the page.

All the labels and titles are written in French only, which is good as it encourages children to associate French words directly with objects, without the distraction of an English translation. In case of any doubt a full glossary is provided at the end of the book. It includes an approximate pronunciation guide which is easy to read but does not replace the guidance of a native speaker.

Overall this is a very attractive and useful tool for introducing French to children of all ages. Even though a few scenes are of appeal only to young children, such as the classroom (with paint and brushes), the playground (with slide, swings and paddling pool) or the bedroom (with toys), it can also help learners in secondary education to acquire useful basic vocabulary. Pages on food, transport, clothes, for example, are particularly good for that purpose.

 Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)