The first article in a series of four, it is my selection of French books for children from Kindergarten to 2nd grade.
No doubt, reading stories to your child is important in all languages, but for a child who is educated in a language other than his own, it is critical.
12 good reasons to read stories in French to your child:
- For pleasure
- To arouse curiosity
- To develop language and vocabulary
- To awaken him to writing or literacy
- To develop imagination and creativity
- To get him to know himself, to face his fears thanks to tales, to talk about difficult subjects
- To mediate and convey messages
- To learn history, geography, culture, the arts …
- To create a bedtime ritual
- To develop a taste for reading
- To share a privileged moment
- To address social issues.
Each week, I will offer you a selection of 10 books for 3 school levels. I chose these books for the diversity of the topics covered, for the richness of the vocabulary used, to confront children with books that are not necessarily those they encounter at school.
The idea of all these selections is to thoughtfully build a rich and varied literary culture. Finally, this selection is solely my responsibility and remains very personal. These are books that I liked by their colors, their smell, the message, the humor, or simply because I was moved …
Age and indicative level are indicative; it depends on who reads (the child or the parent, or jointly) as well as on the maturity of each one which can also depend from one theme to another (relation to death, war, love … .).
To get these French books, several options:
- A bookstore here in Oakland for digging, looking, smelling books to let yourself be seduced in real life by an illustration, the feel of paper, the smell that escapes the pages you turn.
- Bookotroc, a service that allows you to exchange your books in French with other readers via a barter system. The principle is simple, you earn points by sending your books or magazines, then order new books with your points. And so on!
- The Decitre bookstore that delivers internationally
- And finally, what better for Christmas than to receive books sent directly by the family.
Here is the link where you will find a recent list of those French books
You can find new children’s literature selections on the dedicated page of my website: www.ateliersdemilie.com
Find Emilie’s advice for the education of your bilingual children on the Education pages of MerciSF.com
