Hi All,

After a couple of months of lessons and living in Geneva I am depressed to say that I am around the A1 level in regards to French linguistic abilities. I was wanting to get some practice up with reading and thought childrens books or comics might be a reasonable place to start because it will be at my level. The hope here is to gain some confidence and speed from reading things I can understand 90% of instead of the 20% I currently get from '20 minutes' etc.

So I was after some suggestions of childrens books or comics that I should start with. I currently have understanding of and basic verbs/vocab in the passe compose and the imparfait, along with the futur proche. What things should I be looking at? Hopefully there is something about the 3-5 years age bracket

Thanks in advance.

If you have a look at the language section of the bookshop Payot, you'll notice that they have a whole selection of 'simplified' books for French beginners: the plots are based on great French classics, but the vocab is simplified (several levels exist) and the plot is shortened and also simplified.

This might help you acquiring some limguistic abilities without getting too bored! I personnally use them when teaching French to non-natives, and it usually helps

Comic books are great also because you can get so many cues from the graphics. My husband is French and his favorites are Lucky Luke, Asterix and Tin Tin. Our kids (11, 9 and 6 and whose french is basic - ie they understand but speak limited and have not really embarked on reading) love to look at them also. I would simply pick a subject that you WANT to be reading, so it seems like less of a chore.

Asterix is really great and funny!!
[If you happen to know any Latin, it's even better ]

I wouldn't choose 'Petzi' as it;s totally absurdistic and makes no sense.

Good luck with French!

I also recommend Asterix and Obelix. What didn't work for me at all were fairy tale classics because of the use of many uncommon words.

I found a daily newspaper for kids, called 'Petit Quotidien' enormously helpful in my beginner stage. Each day, it takes something from current affairs that's of interest to kids aged about 6-10 (usually involves animals, space rockets, trapped Chilean miners, poor oil-soaked pelicans, etc) and does a 4-page spread in a simple, encyclopedia fashion.

The vocab is quite simple, and the text blocks are short and next to pictures, so you can usually figure out what it's saying. And it's usually something you already know about, so you have a head start on what it's likely to be telling you.

You subscribe to it by post, then it arrives Mon-Sat in the postbox, so a nice little and often dripfeed. Initially I got it for me, but now it's for the kids - I tack it up on the wall in the downstairs loo, for 'automatic' reading...

Details here from the publisher, including a scan of the pages showing the format:

http://www.playbac.fr/boutique.97.le...-quotidien.php

And here's where you can subscribe to have it delivered in Switzerland (it's actually a French publication):

http://www.edigroup.ch/titre-nom.asp...0&numtitre=606

I've upgraded now, onto the one for 10-14 year olds, which I share with my 10 yr old. There is also one for 14-18 yr olds which is fine for my level of French, but painfully dull in its 'right on' or celebrity subject matter and worthy political tone.

__________________
'Chance favours only the prepared mind.'

Look at the BBC production of the "Grand Muzzy" it is a kids cartoon which works on repetition with books etc but may be a little young. My son learned the basics very quickly by watching this instead of Roray the racing car lol

Hey thanks guys, I'll check some of these ideas which sound great. I can remember reading Asterix when I was a kid - might be some advantage there in already knowing the stories!

Cheers.

I thnk movies may help you more...
Watch them on a DVD, in French with French subtitles (not with English ones!). In this way you "see" the words as you hear them; I found that it improves nicely the verbal understanding, and it helps you connect the word to the written form.

Yes, this helps too, although be aware that what's in the subtitle is often not a direct transcribing - like in English, it's cut/changed to fit the available space.

Before you buy French films, have a look on any existing DVDs you may have to see what other languages the subtitles/audio is available - French is sometimes one of the available options.