Bosley's First Words

A Dual Language Book in French and English

Children - Educational
24 Pages
Reviewed on 08/25/2013
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    Book Review

Reviewed by Katelyn Hensel for Readers' Favorite

Bosley's First Words by Tim Johnson is an interesting and unique kind of name-object children’s book. While it follows the pattern and guidelines that most similar books follow (introducing the name, numbers, colors, food, etc.) Bosley has one major difference: he’s bilingual. In this series, words are introduced using two languages; a wonderful idea and what could be a key tool in a bilingual home. My only criticism is that this book must have at least one parent who speaks each language. As for me, I speak English, so even though I am “learning” the French counterpart to each word, because I don’t know the French language I don’t really understand how to pronounce each of the foreign words. This book would be great in a home that is already bilingual, though.

Bosley himself is an adorable and cuddly little bear. Kids love bears, hence the popularity of teddy bears, so this will be a great attraction to kids who are learning about words and ideas. While the art and drawings are minimalist in most of the pages, this is great because it leaves more room for focus and attention on the words that the children are supposed to be learning. You get a chance to learn everything, from how to say hello, to fruits, to basic numbers. My favorite section was on verbs. I was surprised to find such a complex kind of description in a kids' book, but I thought the illustrator did a wonderful job showing the action of the words like jump, climb, sit, etc.

All in all, this would be a great book for children who are very young, and who are of a bilingual family. I wouldn’t necessarily use it to teach French without learning pronunciation etc first, but this would be wonderful for families who already speak both French and English.