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5 Books to Read in French

5 Books to Read in French

It can be hard to find a good book to read in French, depending on your level so today, I review 5 books to read in French from A2 to B1 to improve your French.

Bonne lecture!
 
 
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5 Books to Read in French

French Short Stories

30 French Short Stories for Beginners to Improve your French Vocabulary

Dylane Moreau

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30 short stories easily readable, covering everyday topics. The stories cover a variety of themes, including travel, friendship, family, and more. They are written in clear and concise language, making them easy to understand for beginners. The book also includes questions and answers for each story, allowing readers to test their comprehension and reinforce their understanding of the vocabulary. Read 1 story a day for 30 days and improve your French in only a month!

French Short Stories has been written by a French teacher for French learners from beginner to intermediate level. Reading a story and answering the questions will take you less than 15 minutes a day.

My opinion:

The stories are short and easy to understand, it’s great to build your confidence in French. With the book, you get the audio, and you have 2 types of questions after each story.

Le Petit Nicolas

René Goscinny et Jean-Jacques Sempé

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Age: Age 8 years and up
Level: A2 

Find 19 funny and tender stories of Nicolas and his nice bunch of friends! The adventures of Petit Nicolas are a masterpiece of our literature imagined by two genius comedians: René Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempé.

“When I grow up, I’ll buy myself a class, just to play in it.”

My opinion:

Le petit Nicolas is narrated from Nicolas’s perspective, providing a charming and humorous insight into a young boy’s daily life and experiences. The book captures the innocence and imagination of childhood. because it’s narrated from Nicolas’s perspective, the sentences and vocabulary are easy to understand.

A chapter is a story so it’s around 10 pages. Very easy to read.

The negative point is that it was written in 1950 so there is a couple of words that might not be used anymore.

Tu es le héros du château oublié

Anne-Gaëlle Balpe

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Age: 8 – 12 years old
Level: A2 – B1

It all starts in class, when the teacher sends you to the reserve to get a map of France. You discover a key, and without really knowing why, you decide to keep it. But the following night, the key lights up and you see a door appear on the wall of your room… You push it, and you are immersed in a magical, fantastic world… and which you will have to save! Make the right choices, be brave and cunning, and bring the Enchanter the ingredients he needs to free the forest from the Sorcerer’s spell.

My opinion:

These books are perfect if you are into games, gaming or if you have a short attention span.

In these books, you are the hero. You decide the story. It starts with a little story and then you get choices, depending on what you choose, the story will be slightly different. It’s basically a game as a book.

One is about a castle with ghosts, witches, and zombies.

The other one is about a forest with fantastic animals.

I find the vocabulary to be easy to understand and I love the dynamic of the books. I actually never tried books where you are the hero, so I am glad I tried them.

L’étranger

Albert Camus

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Age: Adults
Level: A2 for a challenge

With the intrigue of a psychological thriller, L’étranger—Camus’s masterpiece—gives us the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach. With an Introduction by Peter Dunwoodie; translated by Matthew Ward.

Behind the subterfuge, Camus explores what he termed “the nakedness of man faced with the absurd” and describes the condition of reckless alienation and spiritual exhaustion that characterized so much of twentieth-century life. 

The Stranger is a strikingly modern text and Matthew Ward’s translation will enable readers to appreciate why Camus’s stoical anti-hero and ­devious narrator remains one of the key expressions of a postwar Western malaise, and one of the cleverest exponents of a literature of ambiguity.” –from the Introduction by Peter Dunwoodie

First published in 1946; now in translation by Matthew Ward.

My opinion:

The vocabulary and sentence structure might be a bit challenging depending if you read a lot or not. But remember that challenging your French are how you are going to improve it.

Le Petit Prince 

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

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Age: 12 years and up
Level: B1

OVER 140 MILLION COPIES SOLD

The beloved classic story about a young prince’s travels through space—a profound tale about loneliness and loss, and love and friendship—in French.

A pilot crashes in the Sahara Desert and encounters a strange young boy who calls himself the Little Prince. The Little Prince has traveled there from his home on a lonely, distant asteroid with a single rose. The story that follows is a beautiful and at times heartbreaking meditation on human nature.

The Little Prince
is one of the best-selling and most translated books of all time, universally cherished by children and adults alike. In this French edition, the artwork has been restored to match in detail and in color Saint-Exupéry’s original artwork.

My opinion:

Le petit prince, another classic. You might have read it in your own language already. It’s the most translated book in the world after the Bible. It has been translated in 480 languages. Crazy! It’s also a small book, 85 pages. I rated this one as B1 because the writing is a bit more complicated than others. But because it has been translated into so many languages, you can compare it to your own language as well.

This story is great for children and adults. It is very meaningful. I won’t give too much about it, but I highly recommend it.

Let me know in the comments if you read one of them or if you have any other recommendations for other learners. 

Mastering French Pronouns

Check out my Mastering French Pronouns Workshop to learn everything about French pronouns. 

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About Dylane

Dylane is the owner & founder of “The perfect French with Dylane”, a YouTube channel and website where she teaches students from all around the world all the aspects of the French language.

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