ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 10th July 2020: "Monsieur Roscoe on Holiday" by Jim Field (Hachette Children's Books)

C'est si Bon! Our second Book of the Week this week is a real refreshing sunny little treat, perfect for kids who are just beginning to learn French at school, and featuring one of the most engaging and happy little characters we've had the delight of encountering in a long time in PBs.

Meet Monsieur Roscoe, star of "Monsieur Roscoe on Holiday" by Jim Field, the super-talented illustrator behind those "Oi Frog / Dog / Log / Platypus" books.

Monsieur Roscoe is off on his summer holidays, and whenever he meets his friends, they always greet each other first in English and then in French - giving kids the opportunity to learn some key phrases and useful words in that divine language (I'm currently going through the grown-up methods of learning French and it's a language that is SO easy to fall in love with, so this book is a double delight!)

Jim's gorgeous bright illustrations underpin Monsieur Roscoe's journey as he sets off on his travels. We loved the fact that this book felt a lot 'busier' than Jim's normal work, almost akin to the fabulous Richard Scarry books I loved as a kid, and packed with lots of additional things for kids to observe and spot (see the back of the book for hints and tips on what to look for in each page spread).

So let's have a look inside. Oooh my you're in for a treat with this one...!

Introduce yourself, Monsieur Roscoe!

A whole host of animal characters crop up in the book, and we spent hours just looking at each gorgeous highly detailed illustration (plus plenty of time practicing our (admittedly terrible) levels of French!)

Even the rain won't put off our happy hound! Il Pleut indeed!

The thing that got us most excited about "Monsieur Roscoe" is that we can instantly see the potential for this to end up as a huge series. More books with more French would be ace, but we could also see Mr Roscoe perhaps being joined by other buddies speaking other languages. That would be just perfect!

Fave scene, the campsite!

It's whimsical, charming, educational and downright perfect, in fact as we already said on Twitter, this is easily our favourite thing of Jim's. What a talented chap he is!

Sum this book up in a sentence: A truly fantastic first book to begin a learning journey for children wanting to speak a little French with brilliant illustrations, a whole host of engaging animal characters and a ton of polish applied to it.

"Monsieur Roscoe on Holiday" by Jim Field is out now, published by Hachette Children's Books (kindly supplied for review).