Sources for reviews of French language resources

 

This is my second year working as a teacher-librarian in a single track French Immersion school.  I have located some good resources for reviews of French language books.  However it is important to recognize that most of these resources are for French language speakers.  In a French immersion school you need books that provide “High-Low” reading, so I scale down the recommendations by a couple of years.  Also I find that books from Québécois(e) writers tend to use vocabulary that is similar to what is being taught in French immersion classrooms; while children’s books from France often use a broader vocabulary.  The broader vocabulary can make the books harder for immersion students to read.  A final piece of advice is to choose primary books that have limited text, since most families with students in French immersion cannot read the primary texts that are “read alouds”. Focus on just buying the most highly recommended read alouds for your teachers.  

My first “go-to” source is Catalogue Nelligan http://nelligan.ville.montreal.qc.ca/search*frc.  The children’s librarian for the La Ville de Québec shared this site with me.  There is usually a book summary (en français), a book review and a book rating. 

	Book rating			Age range (remember to scale!)
5	excellent		M	Preschool and kindergarten
4	very good		E	8 to 9 years
3	good		E+	Primary, 6 to 9 years
2	not recommended		E++	Intermediate, 9 to 12 years
D	to be determined		J+	12 to 15 years
			J	12 to 17 years
			J++	15 to 17 years

 

My second “go-to” site is the Québec Ministry of Education website Livres ouvert http://www.livresouverts.qc.ca/.  This is a site that reviews books by grade level and subject area.  They have a scale for French immersion students too.  Just like any catalogue you can search by topic, title, author, but also by grade level by both first and second language speakers!

Some of my other sources include:

·         Another useful site is Ricochet, http://www.ricochet-jeunes.org/sommaire, an independent Swiss website that reviews French language children’s’ literature.  The focus of this non-profit site is to promote reading and media for children.  Often if I cannot find a review on Catalogue Nelligan, I use this site to get an opinion on a book.  The original reviewers had a professional background.  This site is also designed for French as a first language.  Remember Switzerland has 4 official languages; French is just one of them. 

 

·         Lurelu, a Québécoise magazine all about childrens’ literature http://www.lurelu.net/coupsdecoeur.html. This link takes you directly to their “coups de cœur" or favorites.  This is the list I like the best, however I find they select many read aloud books so be careful with this list for an immersion school library.  Some are amazing suggestions for example: automne 2007 Simard, D. La petite rapporteuse de mots which is a lovely story to teach empathy, word choice and grandparents, for grade 3-5 immersion.

 

·         BnF, the National Center of Children’s Literature, of the National Library of France, promotes quality children’s literature. On the site there is a list of 3000 books sorted by category that they recommend for a children’s library http://lajoieparleslivres.bnf.fr/clientBookline/toolkit/p_requests/formulaire.asp?GRILLE=BITOUSAVANCEE%5F0&INSTANCE=JOIE&SYNCHROID=BIB_IDEALE&PORTAL_ID=JPL_BI_Tous.xml; but they do not give an age range for their books.  There are links to organization that give literature prizes for children’s literature http://lajoieparleslivres.bnf.fr./masc/portal.asp?INSTANCE=JOIE&PORTAL_ID=HTML.xml&URL=Integration/JOIE/statique/pages/15_bib_num/151_ressources_docs/ressources_docs_som.htm  and magazines that review children’s literature. (Quentin Blake)

     Critiques Libres is like the website Goodreads where the members provide book reviews.  Here is the link to reviews of children’s books http://www.critiqueslibres.com/i.php/vcat/502.  If you have a favorite French book, see who gives it a good rating on this site and then use these contributors as like-minded book reviewers, whose opinion you can respect.

 

Other sources of recommended children’s books are Awards and Prizes:

     Communication-Jeunesse, a site all about Québécoise and French-Canadian literature for children http://www.communication-jeunesse.qc.ca/selection/nouveautes/index.php. This site has children’s choice awards “Palmarès” by year which is their best list.  They recommend books as well, however they select about half the books submitted to them so use this list with a large “grain of salt”.

The Canadian Children’s Book Centre which provides the TD prize for children’s literature in French.  This is a Canadian non-profit organization the promotes reading. http://www.bookcentre.ca/awards/le_prix_td_de_litterature_canadienne_pour_lenfance_et_la_jeunesse

There is also the GG’s (Governor General Awards in Children’s Literature) http://ggbooks.canadacouncil.ca/ http://ggbooks.canadacouncil.ca/ which selects a French children’s book and a French picture book from submitted books.  The criteria are for a “Canadian Voice”, so you may not necessarily want these in your library.