Top 10 Beginning French Reading Resources

Are you or your students ready to try reading in French? Here is a selection of French readers for beginning to intermediate students, including short stories, novel exerpts, non-fiction, and poems chosen or written especially with beginning students in mind.

1. Beginner's French Reader, Anne Popping

More than two dozen simple stories about everyday situations with pictures, exercises, and a complete glossary. For absolute beginners.

2. Easy French Reader, by R. de Roussy de Sales

Learn French as you read fiction and non-fiction: short stories, historical sketches of France, biographies of famous French people, and more. Includes margin translations and comprehension exercises. This progressive reader can be used by absolute beginners to intermediates.

3. Poursuite à Québec, by Ian Fraser

Part of the "Aventures canadiennes" series - a mystery and adventure story with simple vocabulary and sentence structure, illustrations, exercises, and a glossary. Beginning French.

4. Dialogues sympathiques: A Reader for Beginning French Students, by Anne Moreau

Thirty brief, humorous dialogues and stories, with illustrations, exercises, and depictions of cultural characteristics of Francophone countries. Beginning French.

5. Mystère à Toronto, by Ian Fraser

Part of the "Aventures canadiennes" series - a mystery and adventure story with simple vocabulary and sentence structure, illustrations, exercises, and a glossary. Beginning French.

6. Joie de lire!, Harcourt School

This series of three books aimed particularly at children includes a reader for each level: beginning, intermediate, and advanced.

7. Danger dans les Rocheuses, by Ian Fraser

Part of the "Aventures canadiennes" series - a mystery and adventure story with simple vocabulary and sentence structure, illustrations, exercises, and a glossary. Beginning French.

8. Graded French Reader, Camille Bauer

A collection of simplified exerpts of French novels, with pre- and post-reading activities, grammatical explanations, and footnote translations. Beginning to intermediate French.

9. Petits Contes Sympathiques, by June K. Phillips

For high-beginning French students: more than two dozen humorous short stories about everyday situations in simple, authentic language.

10. Premiers Poèmes, by Ruth Plaut Weinreb

Anthology of more than three dozen French poems chosen for simple language. Poems cover different historical periods, themes, and Francophone cultures. Includes vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation exercises for each poem. Beginning to intermediate.