Let's Eat!/Allons manger!

Annette Lindsay was a special education teacher in Toronto.

Let’s Eat!/Allons manger! is a sprightly, bilingual picture dictionary covering everyday aspects of family eating. Its organization is similar to that of Lesley Fairfield’s previous dictionary, What’s the Word?/Cherchez le mot.

On the left-hand page, the reader encounters nine pictures with French and English words, which reappear in the cartoon scene on the right-hand page. Each scene depicts some aspect of eating or cooking, such as baking, gardening, or barbecuing. The scenes are line-drawing cartoons, humorously executed, featuring members of the same family, often involved in somewhat bizarre activities. The reader will invariably find one or two situations quite reminiscent of his own perhaps chaotic life with young children.

This picture book would be suitable for a child in an early immersion program (grade 1 or 2) or the first year of a core program. It also lends itself to unilingual activities such as a discussion between parent or teacher and child pertaining to the events of the cartoon picture: what preceded the scene, what may follow, whether the characters are depicted consistently?

The games and activities at the end of the book are appropriate for children who are able to read and write the new vocabulary with ease. Those who are enjoying the book simply as a picture book would find the written activities and instructions somewhat advanced.