Changes

I came late to learning a foreign language, coming from a family who believed that foreigners were just people who were being difficult about speaking the English language which they obviously understood. I then had to learn French at school by reciting verbs, which, in many ways just reinforced the family view. I do so wish that I had been introduced to the language - any language - in this way, with humour and relevance.

Young readers will obviously need some help with pronunciation, but it will be valuable to realise that words in a foreign language do not always appear in the same order as they do in English, and that they are not necessarily an exact translation: language is about ''meaning'' rather than being a robotic process where one word is substituted for another. It's a delightful book for a child who is just beginning to learn French.