Léo le Chat comes to Play!

This ‘first French story’ is designed to be shared by adult and young child to make the first steps of learning French fun. In it we meet Léo accompanied by his mouse playmate, and watch as they go skateboarding. The text takes the form of a simple narration which addresses first the reader (in English) and then Léo (in French with English translation). Léo’s French responses are given as speech bubble flaps which, when lifted, reveal the English translation.

The last three pages consist of a ‘follow my leader’ game comprising six action words, and two pages of vocabulary and pronunciation from the text and additional words of objects seen in the bright, cartoon style, collage illustrations.

My feeling is that young children best learn languages through immersion; but for any adult who has a basic grasp of French and wants to introduce the written and spoken form to a young child, this could be a fun way to do it.