Easy French Reader 2nd Edition

Prior to this, I tried several random language-learning softwares (not including the infamous "Rosetta Stone") and had terrible luck with all of them. While they seemed to work off of the "immersion" principal, I felt completely overwhelmed by the difficulty of the lessons, which were boring and--even in more modern software--were filled with conservatively dressed families from the 80s. I struggled to the point of rather hating the software, and finally gave up on the programs I had tried after a few days... Per the recommendation of several friends, I picked out a French-English Dictionary, and a second book of French verbs and conjugations instead, in anticipation to be taking a class some time soon.This book, however, was more of an afterthought. I had seen it prior to finding the two reference books and thought it might be a good starting point. Now, after having all three books for a couple weeks, it's quickly become the best purchase of the three.It should be noted that I have little to no experience with French: I have never taken a French class, and as of a month ago my French was limited to "Omelette du fromage" ("Omelette with cheese") spoken with a VERY bad accent. Although I have a good friend that speaks French quite well, the only phrases I had really picked up from that person were "good night," "very good," and "thank you."I do, however, love to read.I LOVED this book. I typically read each chapter at least three times before moving on, but often much more. Usually I'll read it once in my head, then once aloud, in English, then finally aloud in French. Any time I sit down to read a shorter chapter, I try to follow this pattern. If I'm unsure how to pronounce a word, I ask my friend or do what I can to google it. If I'm unsure of a word, I look it up the dictionary in the back of the book (which is quite large, but doesn't include -every- word in the book), then in my dictionary, if I'm unable to find it.The stories are, for the most part, at least moderately interesting. Even with the simpler stories I've been through--if they seem a bit silly, they're easy to tease/joke about. My current favorite phrase is: "Pardon me, I'm going to make dinner. I'll be taking Julie, Marc, ET LA CHIEN!" XD Even these simple things have been helping to learn the vocab!I'm still only a couple chapters in because of my slow approach, but it's been working wonders. I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone!

I studied French for two years back in High School. It has been over 40 years since I have had any contact with French. This book is excellent for someone with a small amount of knowledge of the French language and is trying to rebuild their reading skills. There is a small dictionary in the back which helps with some of the words.This book is laid out in such a way that you progress with each chapter. It is divided into three sections. The first section is simple french dialogue; the second section covers French figures in history and the third section has four short stories from well known french authors (Alphonse Daudet, Emile Zola, Andre Theuriet and Guy de Maupassant)If you are looking for pronunciation assistance, this is not the book you want. If you are simply wanting to ease your way back into reading French. I highly recommend it.

The book is a very good introduction to French. It starts with fairly simple language gradually introducing more and more vocabulary and done as a series of conversations between an American and a French student. The second part of the book has quite a few brief summaries of important figures in French history starting right at the beginning and heading through the centuries and up to recent times. The final part of the book has four abbreviated versions of French stories by famous French authors. There is a French dictionary at the back but a full French dictionary as an aid would be an asset.My only negative comment would be that the DVD does not cover all of the material in the book - just selected items - but it does give you a guide to the pronunciation as you follow and is read at the normal rate of speech. Overall, the book is good value and with useful, interesting material. 4 Stars.

I've been using a variety of French readers to revive and improve my French, and there's several I've really enjoyed. So why do I think this is THE ONE to get (if you can only get one)? First, this book is actually three separate readers in one!Part one follows the adventures of American Julie and French Marc, two students. It starts at a truly simple A1 level and gradually increases in complexity. Although it is simple enough to read once you can form a basic sentence, I think you'll get the most out of this part once you have a decent handle on etre and avoir and have some simple vocabulary and pronunciation. Like most leveled texts for complete beginners, the limited vocabulary used does keep the story simple, but there is a plot, especially as the story progresses. There are periodic summaries, as well as a variety of exercises after each chapter.Part two is a history of France told mainly through biographies of famous French people. Like many histories, it is a bit heavy on men, but generally does well entertaining and covering figures that are important to know. It can be very tricky to find interesting and reasonably priced nonfiction at these levels so this series of A2-B1 vignettes would be great for either classroom or self-study use. These also have exercises after each chapter and a synopsis every so often.Part three consists of famous short stories by French authors, but adapted to be more accessible to the French learner. Each of the four stories is broken up into parts, and those chapters also have exercises to complete after. I am still working on this section so it may get more advanced, but what I've done so far seems to correspond to B1 vocabulary, sentence structure, etc. Since these are adaptations of famous short stories, they are probably the most interesting and natural sounding part of the entire book.I've gone through about 20 different leveled readers between my physical book purchases here on Amazon, library books, ebooks, and outside sources. This wasn't necessarily the most engaging, and the audio available is incomplete (covering only parts of the book), but I definitely felt like this had the most value for the money. Most sets want you to buy multiple readers for each level, few include any nonfiction, and most require a separate purchase for audio. For just $15-$30 (at the time I'm writing this review) this set provides leveled reading from beginner to intermediate, with a decent (although incomplete) audio, and a wide range of exercises.If you combined this with a solid grammar book or study tool and the many free resources available online for basic French study, I think it is one of the few single books which can take you from barely understanding simple sentences to truly reading French. While Julie and Marc were a bit silly, I didn't feel like the book was trying to condescend to me as a learner, and completing the chapters and exercises was very satisfying, especially looking back to see that previous chapters and activities were now much easier! However, for some learners I think either shorter books, graphic novels, or genre books which create suspense (such as mysteries, romance, thriller, horror, or even some sci-fi and fantasy) might be a better fit. I am okay with a more traditional classroom style at the moment, and was thrilled to find a textbook so cheap which could work for so long.