Friday 8 June 2012

And the winner is......

ME!!!!!

Yes, you heard correctly and, believe me, I am as suprised as you are. Little old me that never wins a thing (well, apart from the toothbrush and toothpaste kit I vaguely remember winning courtesy of Colgate when I was a child).

I am a fan of Barefoot Books In France on Facebook and entered a competiton one day without even a slight flicker of a thought that I might win. So when Nicole (the host) contacted me to say I was the lucky winner of 25 Euros worth of Barefoot's books (of my choice), I was gobsmacked.

For those of you that do not yet know about Barefoot Books, it was the brain child of "two mothers who wanted their children to have books that would feed the imagination, while instilling a respect for diversity and a love of the planet." Today, they "are a world-wide community of writers, artists, storytellers, musicians, and others who are committed to providing timeless stories and captivating art that can help children become happy, engaged members of a global society." They have a wonderful selection of beautifully told stories with fabulous illustrations.

The icing on the cake, for me, was the fact that Barefoot carry a small number of French (and Spanish) bilingual books and I was able to pick four fabulous English/ French books that Poppette and Little Man will love.

I chose :-

Bear in Sunshine/ L'ours au soleil
Bear in a Square/ L'ours dans un carré
Bear at home/ L'ours à la maison
Bear in town/ L'ours dans la ville

These books are really simple. They have one short sentence per page which will help with vocab building around the theme of the book. The gorgeous illustrations then provide a great base for open ended discussion ... so far Poppette and I have been reading 'Bear in Sunshine' as I am, little by little, teaching her about the weather.

Whilst on the topic of weather.... Poppette astounded me when she woke up this morning .. as Papa carried her into the lounge, she pointed to the window and said (for the first time ever) 'pleut' i.e. il pleut (it's raining) and boy was it... the UK is practically submerged under water right now :D

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous12 June, 2012

    WOW! Congratulations! Isn't it even more fun to enter something - almost forget about it - and then, voilà!, win!! I love Barefoot Books. My favorite is "I Took the Moon for a Walk." So sweet :) I don't think they have any in German, alas. Do you know the blog Mummy Do That (bilingual mom in Scotland)? That's where I first heard about them, as she recently started selling them. Enjoy!!

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    1. Thanks for the tip, I haven't read Mummy Do That's blog I will head over and have a look.

      The bear books have been such a big hit with Poppette... It has actually triggered her desire to have a bedtime story (we have to read all four)..and she carries them around the house with her during the day. They are so good that I would go as far as recommending that you get them in English and just translate them yourself.... the actual text is very simple..its the beautiful illustration that adds even more as we spend ages chatting about what she can see in the pictures.

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  2. We have the Barefoot bear books too. Recently I was thinking that Griffin was outgrowing them--since there's no plot per se. Last night, I had promised to read him three books at bedtime, but I was so exhausted I wanted to find three very short ones. Voila! Bear au soleil et al! I started by reading the text in French and then asking him to "read" the English translation on the facing page. Then, to my great astonishment, he turned the page and read the English sentence before I did the French one--which means he wasn't just translating what he had heard me read!

    So the Bear books will continue to live in his room for the time being. I can't wait till he can read them by himself in both languages!

    One other Barefoot book that we have really enjoyed is One Moose, Twenty Mice. The illustrations are wonderful and offer a lot to talk about, particularly animals and colors. Plus there's a cat hiding on each page.

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