Oops & Ohlala

 Illustrated by Amelie Graux

These books are pretty fantastic.  They're not comprehensive, and there's no direct translation of any of the text, so it's just basic exposure to both English and French in the same book.  I like to talk about the French sentences with my daughter, who at this point, knows a fair number of nouns and verbs, and can generally understand maybe one page out of ten.

 The outings that they go on are all trips that I do with my kids.  They even cover Christmas and Easter.  You can listen to audio recordings of the books for free on Youtube.  They have European accents (the dog is British).

Oops is the English speaking dog and Ohlala is the French speaking Koala.  I think they're supposed to be brother and sister... and they have a koala father...

But, you know, the kids won't care.

Friday Post - Digitized Children's Audio Books

This is an incredible link that I came across many years ago and have kept in my back pocket.  I pass it around to teachers and parents whenever possible, and now I have the opportunity to use it for my own kids.

This is a collection of children's records from the 50's and 60's.  They're all stories, mostly read by very famous actors.  Some are read by Danny Kaye.  The best of the bunch are highlighted.

Down near the bottom is the absolute best of the bunch:  the 13 clocks, read by Lauren Becall.  This is one of my favourite books of all time.  Lauren Becall is an actress that I have the utmost respect for.  She reads the text perfectly with a dry severity.  It's so compelling.

There are many more links on this page, so this is a great jumping off point if you're looking for more recordings of this kind.