Friday 15 December 2017

Les Misérables A French Language Primer


I'm rather excited about participating in the Les Miserables Chapter-a-Day Readathon next year. So much so that I might have had a little Les Mis splurge recently. The first of these books arrived today.  

I must have been in quite the frenzy because I didn't actually remember ordering this book. It appears I did though. And because I was still 10 books away from my Goodreads goal for the year I read it as soon as it arrived. Which admittedly was not all that hard really as it is a board book aimed at (bilingual) babies. And now I'm a mere 9 books away from my target! With 17 days to go. 

Les Misérables A French Language Primer is not a super condensed version of the story, but a kind of bilingual Les Mis themed first dictionary. It is a BabyLit board book. 

Each double page is a matching, inverted colour spread with a word in English and French and an accompanying short phrase.




Most of the pages are predictable- words that are thematic to the Lis Mis story:  L'Homme, Le Prêtre, La Fille. I was surprised by the inclusion of Le Rat though, and wonder if rats appear much more in the book than I am expecting. I suppose they will feature in the sewers when that part of the story happens. I will certainly be keeping an eye out for them in my reading next year. 

2 comments:

Sue Bursztynski said...

Goodness, wherever did you find this? I suspect it's not really aimed at babies.

It's interesting that there are English translations of the book Les Miserables, but not of the title itself. I remember a French teacher of mine who said it means "The Wretches" which I guess just doesn't have the same ring to it. And can you imagine going to see the musical ? "So excited, I'm going to see The Wretches tonight!" Nah, just not the same...

Enjoy your read along!

Of Books And Christmas

Louise said...

Hi Sue, I found this cruising the Les Mis selection on Book Depository. I couldn't resist it. No, it's not aimed at babies. Well you could read it to a young baby just as you can read them anything- the newspaper, cereal cartons, but I don't think it would hold much interest for an older baby or toddler looking for more of a narrative feel. Although my son was obsessed with encyclopaedias about fish and sharks as a young boy so you do never know what will hold their interest.

I'm so very excited about the read along. I wish there was a full audiobook but I haven't found one yet.