How to learn French for the whole family? It’s easy with the Michel Thomas method…

“I’m much more fluent than my 16 year old self…and the kids sound like they have lived in France for months.”

So, Les Bookwormlets feeling a lot more confident about our travels to Belle France this year.

We’ve got by in the past with a few GCSE stock phrases from nearly 3 decades ago and a well thumbed phrase book when we need basic things in restaurants, markets and shops.

But it’s embarrassing that we still don’t speak French well after so many visits. When you don’t speak a language you only get to see, share, sense and experience a tiny element of the country that you are visiting.

Things are different this year. A few weeks ago, we were introduced to the Michel Thomas method.

In short, there are no books, no tests and no stress…..you literally chuck in a few CDs and listen to the strangely calming voice of an elderly French man telling you to “rrrelax”….”don’t trrry to rrrremember”….”be the third perrrson in ourrr converrrrsation”….as he tells you that around 90% of English is the same as French…you just stress words a bit differently and how to learn some, simple common rules.

And he’s right! We’re just 4 hours in and I already feel that I’m not getting stressed about tenses, accents and prepositions. I’ve relearned the building blocks rather than the vocabulary. I’m much more fluent than my 16 year old self (I got a solid B for French) and the kids sound like they have lived in France for months.

It’s hard to describe why it works…so I’ve knicked this description from the Michel Thomas website:

“The Michel Thomas Method works by breaking a language down into its component parts, enabling you to reconstruct a language for yourself – to form your own sentences, to say what you want, when you want. Because you learn the language in small steps, you can build it up yourself to produce ever more complicated sentences.

This Method is ‘in tune’ with the way your brain works, so you assimilate it easily and don’t forget it!”

The Michel Thomas Method is highly recommended for anyone wishing to improve from a beginner to an intermediate speaker in a matter of hours. If it’s good enough for Stephen Fry, it’s good enough for us.

Merci Michel! We’ll let you know whether our newly found confidence pays off…..

Thanks to Hodder for the copy.

HOW TO – make 140 million books

HOW TO – make 140 million books.

Book review: Mr Gum and The Biscuit Billionaire by Andy Stanton

“The heroes are a strange mix of characters and the villains are disgusting, greedy, smelly and rancid.”

This wasn’t the first Mr Gum book that was written by Andy Stanton but it was the first one that we ever read.

We’ve had this book for ages, but the reason we wanted to review it is that it is still one of our favourites and we love the audio book which Andy Stanton reads so much that we want to tell as many parents and kids as we can before half term.

Mum bought the two together when we were going on a long car journey and it is still our favourite thing to listen to.

Why do we love Mr Gum and The Biscuit Billionaire so much?

Well Piggle and me will try to explain…

Piggle: “Mr Gum is a filthy dirty, nasty old beardy man who has a horrible friend called Billy Williams the Third. They are always cross about things and so do horrible things to people like tripping them up off their skateboards and serving them up nasty meat from the butcher shop.

There is a bunch of heroes in the story who have to beat Mr Gum and Billy Williams who are trying to steal a biscuit tin of money from a Gingerbread Man. Some are human like Polly (a little girl) and Friday O’Leary (a grown up man) and others are creatures like Alan Taylor (a Gingerbread Man) and Spirit of the Rainbow (we’re not really sure if he is a little boy or sort of a god).

It’s a brilliant story and the pictures are great. It’s really weird and strange the first time you read or listen to it but when you read or listen to it again it makes much more sense. It frightened me a bit when I was smaller but in a nice way.”

Grub: “The audiobook is absolutely amazing and makes any car journey fly by. We know it almost by heart now and love the brilliant words, songs and phrases in it such as “He was the Hot Dog Man all along” “That little tungler’s as rich as a mushroom” “funty” and “shenanigans!”.

The heroes are a strange mix of characters and the villains are disgusting, greedy, smelly and rancid. The pages of the book look like they have put there mucky fingers all over them. It’s the best of all the Mr Gum books by far.

We’d recommend this book to anybody over 5 who likes a strange stories that are a bit weird but funny and like reading about kids who can overcome adult baddies. Don’t read this if you don’t like disgusting meat or bad smells.

Note from Wiggle: The audio book is genuinely funny and as enjoyable for adults as it is for the kids. You’ll need a strong stomach…..”Come closer to the onions…..”

Bookworms out of 10: 10 out of 10

You’ll love this book if you like: Any of the Mr Gum books or Mr Stink by David Walliams

Reviewed by: Piggle and Grub

Want to read another review by the smaller Bookwormlets?
Click on one of these…

Book review: The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde – Illustrated and abridged by Alexis Deacon

“the best stories are always a bit scary.”

The Selfish Giant has very pretty pictures but some are a bit scary like the one where the North Wind is blowing at the giant’s window after he throws the children out of his beautiful garden.

The book was quite hard to enjoy because some bits were very frightening and some bits were a bit nice, so your head doesn’t get quite in control. But the best stories are always a bit scary. Like Harry Potter stories and The Warlock’s Hairy Heart.

If you don’t let things scare you, you will find a very nice story because the giant used to be horrible and then he becomes sad and after that he became friendly because of the children.

This is probably not a picture book for children who are too young like under 4s.

[note from Wiggle: The artwork from Alexis Deacon is simply stunning. He has taken a classic fairytale and given it extraordinary depth. The long haired, bearded giant is drawn to look human, frail, angry and is ultimately transformed by love. I loved this book even more than Piggle and think that it’s an instant classic. A must for anyone’s shelves.]

Bookworms out of 10: 9.25 out of 10

You’ll love this book if you like: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and Croc and Bird by Alexis Deacon

Reviewed by: Piggle (and a bit of Wiggle)

Thanks to Random House Children’s Books for the review copy.