I have been looking for books to encourage this group of students to read more. To both increase their reading skills and also to develop their French vocabulary. I also like to encourage students to read a book from a series, so if they like it they can continue to read the series. This also helps with vocabulary and understanding as they continue with the same characters.
Some of the easier books include:
- Petit Géant par Giles Tibo. This series is easy to read and has simple vocabulary.
- Woof par Olivier Challet. This series is about a dog detective. The vocabulary is a bit challenging with dog breeds that students will not know. The font is very large, so the books look large for the amount of reading required, which may encourage students to choose them. This is a good author to introduce to students as he has a grade 5 series Les aventures de Max and a grade 7-9 series of detective novels.
- Alain M. Bergeron's series about Dominic is also a good read. Dominic is a mischievous boy who is very opinionated. These are printed by Soulières Éditeur, and since this is a Quebecois author the vocabulary is not as challenging as books from France. The 10 titles include La classe de neige, Dominic en prison, Un gardien averti en vaut... trois, and Il m'énerve, ce William Parker ! Another Alain Bergeron series that students in grade 4 start reading is Capitiane Static (~grade 4-6). This series
is about Charles who discovers a magical power of collecting and using static electricity whenever he wants. Alain Bergeron also has 2 non-fiction series Savais-tu about animals and Connais-tu biographies (grades 4-8), which have more challenging vocabulary, but are filled with off-beat humor; and for the novels which include graphic panels of Billy Stuart (grades 5-7) an adventurous raccoon and friends. - Soulières Éditeur has a number of these small paperbacks in the series "Ma petite vache a mal aux pattes" which include poems too and are good reads for grade 4.
- Martine Latulipe's detective series Les aventures de Marie-P and her series exploring legends of Quebec Julie are also good books for grade 4 readers. Some of the teachers in my school introduce these series in grade 3 so they are well read series in my library.
- Johanne Mercier's series Zip! Héros du Cosmos about the adventures of an alien in space.
- Mechant Minou par Nick Bruel. The limited text of this graphic novel is a frequent choice in my school.
- Adam Blades Beast Quest fantasy series about quests and battles with mythical monsters.Steve
- Jeff Kinney's Journal d'un dragonfle series.
- Daisy Meadows' "L'Arc-en ciel" series about fairies.
- Ellen Miles Mission:Adoption series about dogs.
- Barlow and Steve Skidmore's series C’est moi le hero a choose your own ending adventure series.
- Denise Brunkis series Junie B. Jones en 1re année, about an opinionated girl at school.
- Oram Hiawyn witch series Le journal de Mortimer.
