Les Malheurs de Sophie - The Books

In my previous post I wrote about the movie Les Malheurs de Sophie.  It was based on the famous novel written by La Comtesse de Ségur, a Russian aristocrat who married a Frenchman and later on wrote many novels in French dedicated to her grand-children (after whom she named all her book characters).

Photo Credit : Comtesse de Segur

The novel was first published in 1858 by Hachette with illustrations by Horace Castelli.  The adventures of Sophie is her most famous novel and is actually followed by 2 other books, forming a trilogy: Les Petites Filles Modèles (1858), and Les Vacances (1859).

Photo Credit : Library Mice

In French:

Volume 1 - Les Malheurs de Sophie

Volume 2 - Les Petites Filles Modèles

Volume 3 - Les Vacances
 

In English (translation by Stephanie Smee):

Book 1 - Sophie's Misfortunes

Book 2 - Camille and Madeleine

Book 3 - The Holidays

Photo Credit : Booktopia 

 

The English books are sold in Australia (but available worlwide via Booktopia) but I have not read them so I can't give you a review about them. But if you can't read French at all, they are the only English translation available to my knowledge. Please let me know if you find another version!

Photo Credit : Booktopia

The second book focuses on Camille and Madeleine but Sophie is still there. This novels introduces a new character, the little Marguerite, who is befriended by Camille and Madeleine and butts head with Sophie.  There is such a great camaderie among the characters and their adventures are riveting!  SPOILER: The story gets very sad at times though because Sophie is mistreated by her stepmother and I remember crying very much because the poor little girl was so unloved.


Photo Credit : Booktopia

The last novel in the trilogy is probably one of the best book I have read as a child.  There are many more characters added to the novel by now and our little girls have grown since the last two books.  If there could be a perfect summer vacation, this would be it.  It's like the tale of a summer camp vacation filled with adventures but set in the 19th century, in a French Castle.  It is really an amazing ending to the serie and it gave me a lasting impression of the story.

There have been many editions of this book and the two sequels, including a comic book version.  Other books from La Comtesse de Ségur are also available in that format.

Photo Credit : Amazon FR

I am fond of the Casterman edition with illustrations by Jobbé-Duval. But  I also like very much the  drawings by Castelli for the Collection from La Bibliothèque Rose, a book collection created by the publishing house Hachette for children from 6 to 12 years old.  There is a new collection by Hachette with new illustations by Iris de Moüy.

Another publisher house, FLEURUS, has launched a new edition of  Les Malheurs de Sophie in September 2012!  The illustrations are from Ariane Delrieu and they are absolutely fabulous! You can check her WEBSITE to see a glimpse of her art!



Photo Credit : Fleurus Editions

All the French books from the Countess are available online WikiSource La Bibliothèque Libre, but I would definitely recommend buying the paper version, not just because I am old school but because the pictures are half the fun!

Below are the links to the trilogy:

Volume 1 - Les Malheurs de Sophie

Volume 2 - Les Petites Filles Modèles

Volume 3 - Les Vacances

Warning: The stories of La Comtesse de Ségur often include physical punishments and sometimes very serious violent abuse of children so one should be aware of this before letting their children read the novels.  I personally loved the books because it depicted in great detail an era that was totally different from mine and that is the magic I think the books still convey.  
 

Mes plus belles histoires

My darling friend Laura from Formule Blonde sent me a beautiful French book last week: Mes plus belles histoires du soir (Editions Pierre de Soleil).  There are 42 stories in total, separated in two sections : 1) fairy tales 2) bed time stories.

Illustration by Anja Klauss

The book is filled with beautiful color drawings by different illustrators. You have the classic fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the bean stalk, Rapunzel, etc, but also other tales that I rarely see in children's story books like Tristan and Iseult.

Illustration by Anja Klauss

I love that there are so many color illustrations! They fill the whole page or half a page for each story.  The kids were very inspired by the pictures and started drawing after each story telling.  This is a big book so the size of the illustration is huge!

Illustration by Lucile Limont

She stories are short (1 to 3 pages maximum) and they are well written.  But Remember it's an adaptation (aimed for kids) of famous tales . If you are a purist and want the complete non-abridged version of each tale, look away; this book is not for you!  I think it is the perfect adaptation for small children whose attention span won't last 20 pages or more.

Illustration by Olivier Huette

It was nice reading in French to my boy and explaining to him the vocabulary.  The kids also loved the illustrations!!! Last night we read the story of the Wolf and the 7 kids and we had much fun trying to find their hiding spots in the house.

Illustration by Olivier Huette

Also, many stories were new to me so it is a pleasure to read and discover new tales!  Thank you darling Laura for such a thoughtful and sweet present! ♥

Illustration by Nicolas Duffaut

The Gruffalo & The Gruffalo's Child

It was supposed to rain but not a single drop fell from the sky so instead we had muggy hot weather aka a typical Texan summer day.  It probably felt even hotter now that my 24th week belly is getting quite heavy. Heavy and hot.  Thank goodness I work in a perfectly air conditioned office so I can't complain at all.  I don't like to be outside at times like these though so I went home right after work and stayed indoors for the remainder of the day.

Well it was just a great time to stay home because a lovely package was waiting for me!  Two new books and two new DVDs that I had ordered from amazon.com last week!

The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and The Gruffalo movie as well.

The sequel: The Gruffalo's Child and of course the movie The Gruffalo's Child in DVD too.

We saw the Gruffalo's movie for the first time last year and my boy and all his cousins were in awe and wanted to watch it over and over again.  So after I learned there was a sequel called the Gruffalo's Child, I decided to go ahead and buy the books and both the DVDs too.  Not regretting one bit as the kids once again fell in love with the short animated cartoons and they can now read the books as well.

If you are not familiar with the story, here is a quick recap.  A little mouse scares away a fox, an owl and a snake by telling them about a monster he calls a Gruffalo.  But when the mouse really meets such a monster and is about to get eaten, he does not lose his cool and tricks the Gruffalo as well.  A very clever mouse he is!

The sequel is about what the title says: The Gruffalo's child.  The daddy Gruffalo tells his little one to not wander in the woods alone because of the Big Bad Mouse.  The little Gruffalo goes out in the woods anyway to find this Big Bad Mouse.  This story is hilarious and charming as well but I think the first story was better.

Julia Donaldson's rhymes are fun to read and the pictures by Alex Scheffler are more funny than they are scary.  Even my little 2 year-old nephew laughs and enjoys looking at the pictures and hearing us read the story.

I do prefer to watch the movies though because they are so well made. The voices, the flow, the music, everything is just perfect and the kids can't watch them enough.  A warning though, the first movie does show quite a lot of animals eating other animals so it may seem gruesome at first and some explaining will be needed for the little ones.

Malheureusement, la version française des dessins animés n'exite pas encore.

Il existe cependant une version française de ces livres intitulés Gruffalo et Petit Gruffalo mais comme je n'ai pas lu ces versions, je ne peux vous donner une opinion quant à la traduction.

Of Kumquat trees and weather change

I love how lush and beautiful the trees are here.  I especially love the kumquat trees and the yummy fruits they bear.  My neighbor's tree shown above is full of them and they are sweetly tangy and bitter! A real treat! But I am not a fan of the extremely hot summer and I frankly can't wait for fall and cooler temperature!

I used to hate autumn when I lived up North because it would mean that winter is nearing and that soon I would have to endure six long months of snow and cold.  But now I do miss the clear season's change I experienced when I was younger as autumn here is still very warm and winter is so mild that we rarely get any snow.

Speaking of fall, Bébé's favorite book about seasons is Les petits secrets des saisons from Marie-Anne Didierjean and Jean-Jacques Beaumont.  It's a French lift-the-flap picture book.  Each page features two questions and under the flap is the answer.  The pictures are detailed and lovely and there are quite many French words to learn.  There are tabs on top of the book showing picture of a tree changing for each of the season.

I also have another book from the same authors and collection : Les petits secrets de la maison with the same type of colorful pictures and lift-the-flap feature.

J’aime bien les arbres et la végétation luxuriante de ma ville.  Particulièrement les kumquats et leurs fruits qui sont délicieux.  L’arbre ci-haut appartient à ma voisine.  Il croule sous ses fruits qui sont merveilleusement acidulés et un peu amers.  Mais je n’aime pas beaucoup la chaleur écorchante de l’été et je suis vraiment impatiente que vienne l’automne.

Auparavant je détestais l’automne lorsque je vivais plus au Nord car cela voulait dire que l’hiver approchait et que j’aurai bientôt à endurer six longs mois de neige et de froid.  Mais maintenant le changement des saisons de ma jeunesse me manque et l’automne ici est encore chaud et les hivers sont si doux qu’il neige rarement.

En parlant de saisons, le livre préféré de Bébé est Les petits secrets des saisons de Marie-Anne Didierjean et Jean-Jacques Beaumont. C’est un livre d’images en français avec des rabats à soulever.  Il y a deux questions sur chaque page et il faut soulever le rabat pour voir la réponse.  Les images sont détaillées et très jolies, et il y a plusieurs mots en français à apprendre.  Il y a des onglets sur le haut des pages avec une image d'un arbre changeant avec chaque nouvelle saison.

J’ai également un autre livre par les mêmes auteurs: Les petits secrets de la maison, qui est aussi un livre à images avec des rabats à soulever.