Monday 4 March 2019

Histoires à lire le soir by Marc Thil


Histoires à lire le soir by Marc Thil
Self published in France in May 2013.

One of my Books In French and one of my 2019 Mount TBR Challenge reads

How I got this book:
Borrowed from my partner

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


• 12 histoires variées, pleines d’émotions ou d’humour, pour faire découvrir aux jeunes lecteurs (8-12 ans) le plaisir de lire.

Au sommaire :

• Émile et le microbe 
• Le bracelet d'Anna 
• Mes trois araignées 
• Grenouille en prison 
• Amour et chewing-gum 
• L'anniversaire d'Alex 
• Un chat toujours à l'heure 
• Le mystère de la poubelle du 16 bis 
• Adriane 
• Qui a effacé mes exercices d'anglais ?
• Conversation avec un escargot
• Mon « six cents pattes » 

I'd let my French practice slide after having been so disillusioned with A la folie ... pas du tout so I knew it would take a very different book to get me back into second-language reading again. My OH had purchased Histoires à lire le soir for himself early last year and this fun short story collection turned out to be just the tonic I needed. The twelve tales are each between about four to eight pages long and are actually intended for child readers aged from eight to twelve. That's native French speaking children though. I would confidently say that this book is also perfect for non-native speakers on the wrong side of forty! I love Thil's sense of humour and, although the stories all feature children, I didn't actually find them childish. From a language learning perspective, there was a good mix of ideas and tenses, common and more unusual words, descriptions and direct speech. I think my favourite stories were Un chat toujours à l'heure - where perpetually late breakfasts lead a cat to take matters into its own paws and write its owner a series of complaining notes - and Le mystère de la poubelle du 16 bis which I won't explain as I don't want to drop any spoilers. All twelve tales are very entertaining though and I am looking forward to embarking upon Thil's second volume of short stories soon.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Marc Thil / Short stories / Books from France

4 comments:

  1. I like that the stories all featured children but appealed to all. Great review!

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    1. Thanks Kimberly! These stories were great fun :-)

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  2. I love that you can read in french! :) Because my library loan expired, I finished The Shadow of the Wind in Spanish and nothing like reading a book in the original language. It's SO MUCH better (if possible! I'm totally infatuated with that book lol) I love that this book is good for non-native speakers as well (wrong side of forty?? lol my side!) writing children's stories that are not childish is such an art!

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    1. I imagine reading Zafon in Spanish must be almost overwhelming! Those books are vivid enough in translation! I have a little spoken Spanish and can usually make out enough written to comprehend museum plaques and the like, but nowhere near the expertise for a novel.

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