Ok ya’ll. Let’s get down to business. The weather is finally good and it’s time to go outside. And read. Wait what?
You heard me. Or read me. Or whatever.
I do most of my reading between May and October. When the weather is bad, you can generally find me inside playing video games, but once the weather is nice, I need to be outside absorbing the rays. Don’t judge, I was born on a tropical island, so I maintain that I was meant for more sun than this… despite my very obviously northern-European heritage and Canadian-born parents…
But what better to way just enjoy the fact that we can finally just be outside than to sit on a lounge chair, and read. Let the words on the page soak in like the sun’s rays. Or the words in your earbuds if you’re listening to an audiobook (very wise – I gave myself RIDICULOUS tan lines reading Harry Potter 4 at a soccer tournament in 2000).
And what if, stay with me now, you did some of your summertime reading in French?
First up: KIDS
Hopefully, you kids have been participating in the TD Summer Reading Club each year. Parents, at this point, TD Summer Reading Club has been a mainstay in Ontario public libraries for so long, you may remember participating too. TD SRC is entirely bilingual: it provides bilingual materials, it has a fully bilingual website with games and other activities in English and French.
At Vaughan Public Libraries, we hope you will come register for the Club in branch, and come back again and again throughout the summer to keep us up to date on your reading. We’re having ourselves a little branch vs. branch competition, to see who reads the most books, and we are counting on you to help us win! The most important part is that you read. You can read any books, in any language, and those books will count towards the competition totals. If you want only want to read Babysitter’s Club books, every single one of those books will still count.
As an aside, I read every single BSC book in the summer of 1997, when someone leant me a box with the complete set. In 2020 when the world stopped turning and our brains all went into overload, I read 76 Nancy Drew books. You might be thinking, what is the point of reading that many books that are, realistically, all the same? Fluency, that’s the point. Especially if you aren’t a super strong reader: if you sort of know how the book will work, you don’t have to work quite so hard to understand the story, it gives your brain a bit of a rest, and you can focus on the fun parts of reading! Grown-ups, this goes for you too: Nora Roberts and James Patterson (for example) have enough books to keep you reading for a long, long time, even if reading is not your strong suit. Your skills will improve immensely, and your confidence will go through the roof. Not up for a brick of a James Patterson? Read magazines. Read cookbooks. Read kids’ books or teen books. Read the backs of your shampoo bottles (you know you’ve been there). Just read. As with anything, you’ll get better with practice.
But what if some of those books, just some of them, were French books? Maybe you’re learning French at school. Maybe you’re in French Immersion at school. Reading throughout the summer is a great way to make sure that when you go back to school in September, you are cool and confident, and not at all worried that your brain turned to mush over the summer. Think how much more impressive it will be when you show up with your French skills shiny and fresh too.
We have tons of French books to choose from. Storybooks, picture books, information books, comic books. We even have Dog Man in French: he’s called Super Chien and you are much more likely to find him sitting in, on the shelf, than his English counterpart. In fact, reading books in French that you’ve already read in English is a great idea! That way, if there are words you don’t know, or if you get lost in the French, you can think back to your memory of the English book (or even check the English book!) to help you find your way.
When you come back to the library to report on your reading, ask if you can report in French! If French-speaking staff are there, great, no problem; if not, still come tell the staff about your French books, but maybe you tell them about it in a bit of Franglais, instead of real French. Better yet, see if your French is better than the librarian’s!
TEENS
OK teens (and tweens too), you’re next. If you are in French Immersion, or go to French school, or are otherwise very strong in French, we have a large collection of French Teen books. Just like in the kids’ collection, we’re sure to have the most popular English titles translated into French, so, if your friends are all reading the same 4 books this summer, check if we have that title in French: you can keep your French skills sharp and keep up with whatever is on BookTok. Also avoid the long hold wait times.
If you’re not so strong in French, that’s OK! Maybe try something from the graphic novel collection, so you can use the pictures to help give context, even if you’re uncertain on some of the text. Try reading a book you already know well in English, or even get both the French and English editions, so that you can refer back and forth. Wander over to the Junior French area too, grab yourself a Journal d’un dégonflé or Club des Baby-Sitters and relive your younger days – but Frenchier.
GROWN-UPS (Because summer is no time for adulting)
If you are already a French reader, we have a sizeable collection of French books: fiction, nonfiction, and bande-dessinées. Check out the Teen French collections too, summertime is for fun reading, and sometimes, I like a Teen Fiction book: they tend to be shorter, lighter, and end with hope (if not happiness).
Kids may have the Summer Reading Club, but the Adult Reading Challenge goes all year long, and you can catch up any time.
If you are still working on your French reading, honestly, my advice is the same as it was for teens and kids: if you read Twilight, or Harry Potter, or the Magic Treehouse, or the Chronicles of Narnia, or Anne of Green Gables or whatever, when you were younger (and I mean read, and reread, and reread….), go find it in French. Ditto if you’re into Danielle Steel, or James Patterson, or Dan Brown, or what have you. Get it in English AND French and impressive yourself with how well you do…. Or if not, aim to do a little more practice and be a fluent French reader before you know it…. Or if not, that’s OK too.
OK, in a minute I’ll tell you how you can cheat and still totally take credit for Frenching things up, but first: let’s double down on the reading: audiobooks.
One of the most important parts of learning a language is listening to it. That library card of yours gives you access thousands of French ebooks and e-audiobooks.
That includes things like your Danielle Steel, your James Patterson, your HP, Geronimo Stilton, Wimpy Kid. Use the Cantook-Aldiko App to fill your device with audiobooks for your next road trip. Get the audiobook AND the ebook (where available, no promises), so you can follow along as you listen.
Further to that point. (And this is where we are verging on cheating.)
Movies. We have French movies: and by that I mean that we have movies written and acted in French by French artists; and also, almost all big studio movies released these days come with a French language track. Probably a Spanish one too. So watch Frozen for the 348,826th time, but this time, watch it in French. You can start with English subtitles, and graduate up to French subtitles as your ear gets better and better.
Summer Reading isn’t about perfection. It isn’t about reading level. It isn’t about proving anything to anyone (except yourself, and maybe your rival library branch – come ON, everyone! We’re halfway through the summer and Carrville is STILL in the lead!! Can anyone catch them???). It’s about having fun and reading because you want to. I’m not going to force you to read anything you don’t want to read – if you have summer reading assignments, I’m sorry that is being put upon you, but give ‘em a try before you write them off as boring schoolwork. Find something to love. Find something that makes you laugh. Or cry. And if you want to stretch the language center of your brain, get a little multilingual with yourself.