I'm not sure reading French from a book will convey much language to him but it doesn't hurt to try. You may accomplish more by simply talking to him in French and, of course, explaining what you said.

I remember that book well, an assignment in one of my earlier French class years. A phrase that planted in my brain was the passage about "pour ramoner nos volcans". Completely useless vocabulary, sweeping out our volcanoes, but cute all the same.

Even though the idea of sweeping our volcanos is impractical, it is a way of learning structure and vocabulary that will stick. If you’d read a passage about sweeping the floor, it might not come back to you many years later like sweeping a volcano does, and you remember the word and structure for sweeping something. Whenever I have to remember how to use the imperfect, I hear “Lorseque j’avais six ans . . . “

Moosemac, you can probably find one French and one English, and the page layouts will be virtually the same. I have copies in 3 languages and the identical layouts are so helpful to me. Also, I was in a Montreal music store looking for French children’s albums that were easy to understand without being to slangy or babyish. The salesperson recommended Carmen Campagne, and we really enjoyed listening to the tape in the car. They didn’t always understand the words then, though they sang along, but when they started French classes several years later, those old songs came to the surface to support vocabulary and grammar.

For reading from the bilingual book (and looking at the sample page, I rather like it, though I, too would miss the illustrations) I can imagine reading the long passages in English, and the short ones in French, and English. I’m assuming the three-year-old isn’t independently reading yet?

I agree completely with your TV drama recommendations, Zalco.

Another we REALLY enjoy is "Meurtres à...", translates to Murder In...... . Dialog in French with English subtitles. I'm rusty but with this and others I can do about half listening, half reading. I chuckle at the frequent goofy translations in the subtitles that are off.

This series has well written and engaging crime stories with the production technique of showing different areas of natural beauty around France. The episodes are standalone, start and finish within 90 minutes, and each is filmed in a different location. Whether at Mont St. Michel, or in Alps, hill towns like Grasse in the south, or areas with buttes and caves, or islands or beaches or whatever, gorgeous scenery and engaging stories.

Even if he does not understand the words yet, hearing the language read or spoken aloud will stick with him when he is older. Since some of the sounds are different and some not even used in English, it is important for him to hear them. All children are capable of learning every sound from every language when they are babies and toddlers, but they 'lose' the sounds that are not used in their native language. I read and spoke in French to my son and now to my granddaughter. She uses some words now at two-she will give our 80 lb lab a push and say, "bouges, Sam." she also uses and responds to ça va as a question or a statement, understands and uses voilà, and bonjour, à demain, and other simple phrases. Of course, she is not speaking sentences yet in French as she does in English, but it is a start.

I think Le Petit Prince is a wonderful story, but I started with Pierre Lapin and other toddler appropriate stories in French as well as songs. It is a joy to hear her pick up some French. My screen saver is le tour Eiffel and she recognizes it whenever she sees it. I actually enrolled her in a bébé class at our Alliance Française for classes last winter, but they canceled due to the corona virus. Such a disappointment for me. Guess a trip to France needs to happen when they let us in again! ;-)

Thank you all for the wonderful suggestions!

I do speak to him in French. Though my Parisian French is nonexistent from lack of use; my Quebecois French is better, I tried Rosetta Stone and got bored very quickly. Unfortunately I am the last remaining family member that speaks French, none of my children or relatives had interest in learning. I did try with my kids but the schools they attended started Spanish in Pre-K and they chose that route. Funny thing is they can both get the gist of what I am saying when I speak French.

Of course my sharpest skills in French are cursing. I'm a champ at that! LOL

I agree with everything Zalco and others have written, but if you're still interested in a bilingual edition, I believe this one has the illustrations: https://www.amazon.com/Little-Prince-French-English-Bilingual/dp/0956721591/

I have used children's comic books to help me learn Spanish and Portuguese, but I did not get very far with Portuguese because it is not phonetic, and so I cannot be sure how it is pronounced from the way it is written. Portuguese is just as bad as English in that regard.

The main problem with comic books is that they get torn very easily.

Thank you for the recommendation, Elmer. That series sounds wonderful.

moosemac, do not worry about a Québécois accent. The structure and sounds are all the same. There are some vocabulary differences, but that is fine. One of my children's teachers at their school was Québécoise. Her accent posed no trouble, besides she made a fabulous tourtière ;-) There was more grumbling about a teacher with a strong southern French accent than there was about hers.

Here are some age appropriate videos:

We started with Amazon Prime and then later seasons required a supplemental subscription to Mhz. It may have changed but you may have that already. If so, don't miss Capitaine Marleau, a French unabashed ripoff of Columbo with a female in the lead who wears winter hats with earflaps in all seasons. It's well done and hysterical.

Lars, the term comic book is incorrect, my apologies. In French the picture book format is called an album and the type of literature is called bande dessinée. If you have ever seen an English version of Tin Tin, that is what I am referring to.

I bought graphic novels in Spanish, which were in paperback format and so were not comic books either, but what I bought in Portuguese did qualify as being comic books.

I'm not familiar with Tin Tin. The only book I have in French (beside language books) is a collection of works by Baudelaire, but I like it very much.

I wish I were better at conversational French - I am pretty good at reading and writing it, but I have a very difficult time understanding spoken French, and when I do speak it, I have a very bad accent. For me, Russian is a lot easier to pronounce than French, even though I have studied French more than I have Russian. I think I have not developed the correct muscles in my mouth to pronounce French correctly, and this should be done at an early age, I think.

Caillou is from Québec :-)

My bilingue quebecois niece and nephew have to be really cajoled into using a quebecois accent!

Our neighbor’s mother used to come from a Romania in the summers to look after her grandchildren while the parents worked. She spoke Romanian to them, they spoke English to her lol. In the park, Buni and I spoke a combination of Latin-based-ish languages and Germanic-ish languages, we got along just fine!

I've been buying second hand children's classics from Better World Books. https://www.betterworldbooks.com/search/results?q=le%20petit%20prince

Elmer, we love Capitaine Marleau also. Another good mystery show in French is Le Sang de la Vigne (Blood of the Vine). Charming characters and beautiful settings. Good mysteries, too. I wish we could turn off the subtitles, though.

Thanks, cyn427, I'll give it a look.

Hearing a language at a very early age is a good way to instill the sounds of that language. Research has shown that babes babble almost every possible sound that a human can make, but soon adapts to what they hear most often and drop other utterances.

^^exactly^^

cyn427, I just watched half of the first episode of Le Sang de la Vigne. I'm not sure where it's going but we found it very engaging and fun. We'll for sure keep watching it. Thanks again.