At the end of the fall long term, Joanna's French 2 students are usually assigned a creative project, in which they write (in French of course) and illustrate a picture book for children. The library gets to showcase the students' work come Short Term.
As with most school assignments, some students will do just enough to get it done, and some will work really hard on it. Every now and then, a student will throw him or herself so wholeheartedly into an assignment, and the end product is so wonderful, that it just has to be shared with the world.
One such example of fantastic student work is on display in the library now. La Soirée de Tony is a cute, appealing story written in very good French, but the care and work the author put into the drawings are what make it so good. A successful picture book, as opposed to an "illustrated story book," is a book in which the text and the illustrations work together to tell a story that is greater than either element independently.
So, while you read and enjoy Tony's Night Out (translations supplied by yours truly, but approved by Joanna) notice how the wealth of detail in the illustrations -- the facial expressions, the extra characters in the background, the action not made explicit in the text (le prof. on p. 4, and M. Blanc and the bear on p.12!) -- add to the humor and our understanding of the story.
Come see all of Joanna's French 2 student picture books, on display in the library through the end of the month.
Check out C'est Cochon, another showcased student-created livre en images from French 2 a couple of years ago, here.
