Miss Louise Goes to Paris by Carolyn Hink and Emma Calder
| Miss Louise Goes to Paris by Carolyn Hink and Emma Calder | |
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| Category: For Sharing | |
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Reviewer: Jo Heffer
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| Summary: This wonderful and unusual book tells a story of a primary school teacher, Miss Louise, and what happened when her boyfriend whisked her off to Paris for Valentine's Day. The narrator is one of Miss Louise's pupils who retells the story and is so delightfully caught up in her teacher's adventures, that the reader cannot fail to feel the same way too. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 48 | Date: September 2008 |
| Publisher: Quercus | |
| ISBN: 978-1847244352 | |
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This wonderful and unusual book tells a story of a primary school teacher, Miss Louise, and what happened when her boyfriend whisked her off to Paris for Valentine's Day. The narrator is one of Miss Louise's pupils who retells the story and is so delightfully caught up in her teacher's adventures, that the reader cannot fail to feel the same way too.
This is a simple story where Miss Louise is taken to Paris by her boyfriend. They see wonderful sights and eat delicious food until they end up on the top of the Eiffel Tower where she is proposed too. By the time she returns to school and her pupils, she is happily engaged and wearing a beautiful diamond ring on the third finger of her left hand. Every page is a surprise as it chronicles all the different aspects of the trip including the journey, the clothes they wore, what they eat and the sights they visited.
I read this book with my five year old daughter and she loved it because there is so much more in it than that basic storyline suggests. Firstly she loves the way it is written by a child and the form it takes is more like a topic book than a typical story. I love the way this young child sounds so knowledgeable about everything but sometimes when she's not sure of something she has asked her older and wiser brother who obviously knows everything. There are many pages that include the words 'my brother says'.
The script is in a child's beautiful handwriting and as well as drawings there are things like the 'euroheart' ticket and a menu. There is also a map of France and a beautiful hand drawn map of Paris with pictures of all the well-known landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. My daughter was absorbed in taking in all these details and wanted to know about all the places that were shown.
Something else she loved was the part where the journey from London to Paris was described as this involved taking the train through the tunnel under the sea. This is depicted very well with pages that fold out so that you can see the entire extent of the train. You see people chatting and reading through the windows and above the train you see layers of earth. Above this there is the sea with a marvellous array of fish swimming and above that there are ships sailing across the channel. This really did feel like one of those pictures that paints a thousand words as there was so much to take in and talk about.
This book contains just about everything including the opportunity to learn a bit of French! On one page the young writer informs her reader that they speak French in Paris and that she is also learning French herself. She then proceeds to draw and label lots of everyday things including 'un chat', 'une glace' and even 'les escargots'. My daughter loves this page and it has been her first introduction to learning a foreign language! She will often greet me with 'bonjour' rather than 'hello' now.
Not only is this an enchanting story, it also introduces children to a different country with opportunities to learn about the language and lifestyle. It could be a book such as this which might just inspire a child to want to learn more about this wonderful diverse world we live in and to want to travel to see much more of it!
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.
This is a very unusual book and I have not come across anything quite like it. However, another book which may inspire a child's thirst for knowledge is Katie and the Spanish Princess which introduces children to the world of art.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Miss Louise Goes to Paris by Carolyn Hink and Emma Calder at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Miss Louise Goes to Paris by Carolyn Hink and Emma Calder at Amazon.com.
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