Mr and Mrs Frog run a charming little Lost & Found shop in the middle of a large city. Their tiny premises is overflowing with lost items which they hope to reunite with their owners. One day a mouse enters and asks them for help – but he can only speak French.
He is desperately looking for his ‘chapeau’, but as Mr & Mrs Frog can only speak English they are confused. . They muddle around the shop, pulling out objects at random and waving them questioningly at the mouse. Each time the mouse shakes his head. He’s not looking for ‘un parapluie’, ‘un manteau’, ‘des lunettes de soleil’ or ‘un pantalon’. He definitely hasn’t lost any ‘fromage’ or ‘un ordinateur’ or ‘une banane’.
All the mouse wants is his ‘chapeau’ – but how can he explain that to Mr & Mrs Frog?
The mix of humour and language learning in this story works really well. When it first arrived Ivy made me read it three times in a row, grabbed a bobble hat from the hallway and then ran around the house yelling ‘CHAPEAU’! She’s picked up lots of the vocabulary and has also started to ask me the French words for other things she can see in the pictures.
Once you have finished reading the story together there is a detailed vocabulary section at the back, which includes phonetics so that parents who aren’t familiar with the language can make sure they are getting their pronunciation right.
As a parent, one of the things I liked most about this story is that it encourages empathy. Ivy felt sorry for the mouse when he was struggling to make himself understood and she was trying to solve the mystery of the missing ‘chapeau’ herself so that he souldn’t be sad anymore. She jumped up and down with excitement at the end of the story when Mr & Mrs Frog finally get it right.
As well as French, this story is available in multiple other languages, including Welsh, Polish, Greek, Dutch, Latin, Spanish, Slovak and Tagalog.
Buy it now: https://www.neuwestendpress.com/the-fabulous-lost-and-found
Disclosure: The publisher provided us with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.