I need to renew our French books’ library. Could you please recommend books you are reading with your 3-4 years old children?
Hi,
My son is 22 months but can now sit still and listen to longer picture books that would be enjoyed by preschoolers. Here are some of our favorites:
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Usborne: “Histoires d’animaux pour les petits”, “Histoires du soir pour les petits”, “Histoires de pirates pour les petits”. These are awesome books, simply written and wonderfully illustrated. They come in hardcover format and there are five stories in each book.
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Another series is from Editions Babiroussa/ written by Tony Wolf, it includes: “Hisoires de chagrins et de câlins”, “Histoires de la Forêt Enchantée”, “Histoires pour le soir”, “Petites Histoires de la Ferme”, and “Histoires Courtes pour se Coucher Vite”. These are chunky board books, each one has 12 stories. They are VERY WELL written with plenty of vocabulary and idioms to explore. They would be perfect for a preschooler to read.
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Other classic French books are:
- Grosse Colère
- Contes de la Rue Broca
- La Soupe aux Cailloux
- Je T’aimerai Toujours Quoiqu’il Arrive
- Martine (all the series)
Other simpler books like Petit Ours Brun, T’Choupi, Barbapapa & Trotro would be useful for preschooler to read by themselves.
Most of all the books I mentioned are available on Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, Amazon.ca and you can always search on Ebay for good deals.
A_BC, hypatia - thanks a lot!!! Just ordered and looking forward to get them asap 
Oh, great!
Sellers are great on this website. Don’t forget to confirm the order once you receive the book so that te seller gets paid
Hi Hypatia,
I was wondering if there are any other books you suggest ( early readers, must-read classics, etc) Also, I am trying to find good DVDs here in the US or shows on YouTube. Do you recommend any? My toddler has been watching Little Pim for some time but I’d like to take him to the next level (I know there are Muzzy & Professor Toto. But I don’t really like Muzzy because of the dull graphics, Professor Toto is teaching very basic vocabulary and I don’t think it will benefit my LO at this stage).
Thanks!
Sorry I did not read your message earlier-
For Youtube videos, are you OK with ‘regular’ cartoons or something more educational?
We usually watch Little einsteins and Ni Hao Kai Lan in French. There’s a Nickelodeon junior channel here so all the shows shown in the US exist in French too (Diego, Umizoomi…)
For easy readers, check out the ‘papa’ series by Alain Le Saux. Also Petit Ours Brun.
I’ll write again when I have more suggestions.
I am sorry for the late reply 
For some reason, I didn’t get an email notification about your post.
For the moment, we watch Trotro, quite simple. It is actually his very first cartoon (as we don’t have TV and I only show him EL DVDs). He’s turning 2 in 2 weeks, that’s why I allowed a bit of cartoon time. But I guess he’ll ask for more very soon. So I’ll try what you suggested. Thanks a lot for that!
Found this not too long ago…
http://en.childrenslibrary.org/
They have a huge collection of children’s books, for free, in almost every language you could wish for
my kids got a subscription through the french school , wonderful selection of french picture books that m kids love . the site helps with extensions and more activities for the books .
viv
I could recommend the following serie - Mes P’tits Docs (for example, http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/2745919709/ref=pe_217191_31005151_dp_2) There more than 20 books in this serie. All of them have very beutiful pictures, very good quality and short but informative stories. I bought a lot of these books and my son could sit 30-40 minutes but looking through them and telling himself what he is seeing.
And if your child is in pirate’s phase the following book is must to have - http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/2700014898/ref=pe_217191_31005151_dp_3 (there is an english version of this book). This books has a very big 3D pop-up sea with several boats, sea creautures and so on. Really amazing book!