You can find better French kids books!
926706
Story line wasn't as great as I was hoping for!  Wish that amazon.com had more French options for kids...
1935357
pretty photos but if you've got a good French cookbook, you won't need this one.
2101266
The translation of this book was not very well done (original text is in French). It's hard to read a book when the grammar isn't properly done.
3541041
If you love France you expect more for a published book than this inexpensively printed book. I did not see and beyond in bold so was to surprised to see other cities. Paper quality poor as was the images.  thank heavens for Amazon"s return policy!
2207374
I've been using the Jumpstart games for my kids since they were in Pre-K and they love playing with them. I bought the Languages set for my 5 yr old thinking it would be a great intro to foreign languages. She enjoyed the games at first, but quickly grew bored. There are fewer games than in the other Jumpstart sets and they're not as challenging. My biggest complaint is that the sound quality and pronounciation for the foreign words are so hard to decipher I doubt my kids will be able to figure them out. I would suggest giving this set a miss.
2406151
It's FRENCH! (I knew that, but I had hoped for some insight somewhere.  No, it's really just a book written in the French).
1028636
I speak fairly good French and was looking for something to help me learn Kreyol.  This program is useless for that - there is no grammatical information and a lot of time is spent teaching you that "ri" is street, etc.  If you don't know any French or Kreyol and only want to learn a little "tourist Kreyol", it might be okay for that.  If you are learning Kreyol to work there or to adopt a Haitian child, look elsewhere.
1825218
Like the French language, but a pronunciation guide is needed for lower level readers.  Very age appropriate otherwise.
4333624
It wasn't my kind of book, to begin with. I couldn't really connect with the characters -they all had one or two notes and that was it. I would like to read it in French, though. The language looked more exciting than the subjects of the story.
908109
Hardcover with photographic boards, issued less DJ, 11.25 " x 9". 128 Pages. NOTE : FRENCH LANGUAGE THROUGHOUT. 2 maps. Approx 30 field photos in color and b/w., approx 70 photos of (mostly) costumes with some masks, in color and b/w. About 20 simplistic line drawings. Published by Biro Editeur, Africa Tevuren, Koniklijk Museum Voor Midden-Africa, Musee Royal De L'Afrique Centrale, and IRD Editions, 2008.

Just to give an idea of the sad waste of oportunity this book represents, one particular "Bobo" costume is shown (full page) in nine (9) different out-of-focus incarnations throughout the book....and yet....not one of the 9 photographs is worth a darn. There are also 10 full pages of out-of-focus leaves. (Yes....leaves....and not very interesting leaves, either.) There are actually very few actual Bobo costumes featured, but those few are shown multiple times in poorly taken and mostly too small "vacation snap" quality photographs. The "candid" shots are mostly poorly lit, poorly framed, poorly proportioned, poorly composed and poorly presented. There are even fewer actual Bobo masks featured, and although it's extremely difficult to mess-up the spectacular beauty of Bobo masks, this book makes a bold attempt to do so. You wouldn't know it from this book, but Bobo masks and costumes are truly spectacular, and deserve a much better presentation. My French is not good enough to comment on the text, but if it's as bad as the photos, it's very bad indeed.

For info, Mr. Le Moal's first effort to butcher Bobo Art is just as bad, but in B/W  ;&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Les-Bobo-Nature-et-fonction-des-masques-Travaux-et-documents-de-l-ORSTOM-French-Edition/dp/270990571X/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Les Bobo: Nature et fonction des masques (Travaux et documents de l'ORSTOM) (French Edition)</a>
4046624
I have to say that I love France. I really, really love it. I have worked and socialized with many French people, some lovely, some well... So many Europeans will talk terribly about stereo-typical "awful Americans" even while choosing to live in the United States. I don't think the average American has enough experience working with or socializing with "Europeans" to make generalizations, but I have observed the majority feel quite superior in their French-ness or European-ness.

It was disappointing that the authors didn't even try to be even-handed in her treatment of both cultures. They might have had good intentions at the start of the project - there is one hint of admiration for American flexibility and independence, but only for a fleeting moment on the illustration of Times Square on one of the first pages, but after that she let the superiority flow. It really should be called "Not to Brag: Superior French Parenting, and You Americans Are So Utterly Ridiculous." I have to say, most American children don't dress like crazies, wear costumes out of the house, or eat under tables, they, as I hear many Americans do in 2017, eat vegetables and a variety of healthy foods.

As I saw on my last trip to France, after not having visited France for almost 10 years, that times have changed around the world, and unfortunately for the French, it was very hard to tell the difference in weight or style of dress, or in choice of footwear, as the author points out, between a French person and the dreaded "awful American", except that maybe the French person had a cigarette in their hand.

Are Americans perfect? No way. Are the French? Read the book.
4238470
I'm a French teacher, too, and find this series frustrating and practically impossible to use.  As far as I can tell, the material is barely organized, beyond a few thematic vocabularies.  The grammar doesn't build clearly; the idiomatic expressions seem to come out of the air -- a new learner is faced with memorizing meaningless foreign phrases, many of which are slangy and not strictly grammatical.  Yes, casual French should be mentioned, but the correct grammar should be taught first: example: why omit "ne" from expressions before the students have completely learned negation?

English is used in directions for exercices when French would clearly be understandable and much more useful for learning the language.  Why, why is half the text in English even in a second year textbook?  I suppose grammatical explanations may be more useful in English, but there is no reason to ask questions about French texts in English, nor to give directions in English beyond the first few lessons.

The graphics are cheap looking and unattractive.  The chapter descriptions for the students are virtually worthless: no list of grammatical structures that will be taught, no logic to the sequence of target structures.  For example: Why ask the student to learn a conditional before any structures leading up to it have been taught? Life is too short to figure out the color codes that supposedly organize the chapters. Maybe there's so much English because there is no serious organization beyond silly color codes.

The way I learned French in the 50's and 60's would be better than this appalling "modern" series. Teachers and students: do not waste your money, and more importantly, your time on Allez, viens.
2231150
This book reads like a botched translation.  Large words inappropriate to the age level abound (seriousness, enthusiastically, illuminates) and the grammar is often awkward, for example: "But a dog cannot unscrew the lid of a jar, and neither can a parrot."  If the English was better, these would be quirky books...but I wouldn't purchase any of these titles again unless a better translation is available.  That is, I hope they're translations...
2514698
If your school requires these books, strongly consider dropping the class. The book is useless unless you already speak French, and then why would you want a French instruction book??
2160918
I bought this book brand new from Amazon because I wanted to see some nice pictures of the French hillsides and landscapes. The pictures are good (not great), but as soon as I started flipping through the pages, I noticed that they started to come off the spine like those cheapo postcard books you get at the swapmeet or tourist traps.

Don't waste your money on this book (like I did).  I bought mine brand new, but because they used an inexpensive binding method, it'll always fall apart as soon as you open it wide to look at what you think are supposed to be 'great' pictures of Provence. The pictures are just OK - in my opinion.  It's a small book, so it doesn't really do justice to those pictures (if they were really that great in the first place).
2987023
If you are going to get a book along these lines, I would highly recommend the "Peekaboo Zoo: A Lift-The-Flap Book" instead  While this book, may be interesting for young babies (7-10 months is my guess) it holds no real mystery or fun, and the appeal is very quickly lost for most children I have read it to.  Just my two cents!
2787278
I purchased this book based on the other reviews that I read for it here on Amazon.  We are planning our first visit to Paris and were in need of a book to help us decide what to do with our children who are 11 and 9 years old.  The book is terribly organized and, for someone like us who is new to the city, it doesn't help at all with deciding what would be best to do during our time there.

The headlines at the top of each page are in French so if you are not fluent enough to understand them, you are forced to read through each page to decide if it would be something the family might enjoy.  I have found this book to be of little use for my needs (which are to plan our 5 day stay in Paris), but if you are planning a longer visit where exploring neighborhoods and their parks are of interest to you, you might find the book helpful.

The only thing we thought was good about this book was the dancing Eiffel Tower contained within its pages!