Review
As this is a graded reading material designed for beginners trying to learn French, I am going to evaluate the book’s effectivity as a reference book rather than a novel.
An immersive reading that offers a glossary of most of the contained words within the stories and an easy to follow plot, the book was highly effective. The plot is simple and can be quite predictable, but that is what makes it to be an effective tool in learning. Grasping the general idea of what the story is about is probably the most important aspect in trying a graded reader. What follows is the capacity to understand the vocabulary used within the story even with disregard to proper grammar (which can easily be understood once you get a grasp on how the language is spoken – or in this case, read).
What I want to share within the constraints of my experience is, I find that the effectiveness of this material was drastically lowered as I have read it in an e-reader. It may only be my own preference, taking into consideration how I like to note down things and flip through pages back and forth. In light of flipping pages, it is also more difficult to go through pages with an e-reader. You might think that the simple clicking here and there would be a breeze, but it is not. Comparing it to placing tabs on a print and flipping is just too far off the easy route.
Overall, I believe that Short Stories in French (For Beginners) is an effective tool to learn French through language immersion, combined with intensive and extensive reading with repeating sessions. If you are someone like me who likes to annotate and flip through the pages frequently, though, I highly suggest purchasing a printed copy instead of a digital one. In addition, each of Olly Richard’s book has an audiobook version that you can listen with to maximize the capacity of the learning material.
