Réseau: Communication, intégration, intersections by Jean-Marie Schultz, Marie-Paule Tranvouez (review)

forms is in evidence; the reader has no way to determine in which Canadian maritime provinces or Louisiana parishes the variants are found. Although this publication sheds light on the maintenance of Acadian dialectal features in Cajun French and thus provides valuable information about this dialect, the study is limited to language-internal considerations. Readers who hope to find consideration of actual language use or the role of Cajun French in contemporary Cajun communities may be disappointed that such issues are not addressed. University of Louisiana, Lafayette Tamara Lindner Methods and Materials edited by Sarah Jourdain SCHULTZ, JEAN-MARIE, and MARIE-PAULE TRANVOUEZ. Réseau: Communication, intégration , intersections. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2010. ISBN 978-0-13241392 -3. Pp. 462. $83.75. Réseau’s goals, as stated in the preface to the Instructor’s Annotated Edition, are to address the following issues: 1–fostering critical thinking skills through language learning; 2–vertical articulation of French programs from first through third year; 3–the use of the L1 versus the L2; and 4–thematic issues of cultural diversity , globalization, and identity. It succeeds admirably on all counts. The most striking element of Réseau is the thematic organization of its chapters. Themes are broad, interesting, current, and inspire cross-cultural comparisons: family relations; masculine/feminine roles, rights, and responsibilities; urban life; French, Acadian, and Québecois identity; France as a social kaleidoscope; cultural icons of France; France as a multicultural country; the Francophone world; aesthetic intersections; cinema in France; France as seen from the outside; and France and Europe. As the book progresses the scope of the chapters’ themes expands, from the family unit to France’s place in today’s Europe. These themes are clearly designed to meet the first goal outlined by the authors: to foster critical thinking through language learning. Any and all themes permit and encourage comparisons with the students’ own culture. For example, while covering the chapter on France as seen from the outside, comparing French and American stereotypes and global reputations is a natural progression. Chapters are arranged to present and practice vocabulary first, to equip students to engage in the grammar, culture, reading, and writing activities that follow. Grammar points are interlaced with a culture section, a reading text, and writing activities. For example, in Chapter 2 (Masculine and feminine roles, rights, and responsibilities), addresses Frenchwomen in the workplace as the cultural topic. The literary text is none other than an excerpt from Simone de Beauvoir’s Le Deuxième Sexe, which continues the theme of the chapter while introducing students to a major writer and philosopher of the twentieth century, thereby addressing the goal of vertical articulation to third year reading and content courses. Directions and grammar explanations are in French, discouraging use of the L1 for those purposes, incorporating the authors’ third goal, to increase L2 use by 216 FRENCH REVIEW 84.1 students. Grammar examples are relevant and contextualized to the themes of the chapter. Activities build from mechanical to meaningful to communicative, and are easily adapted to either written or oral work. The final goal, addressing thematic issues of cultural diversity, globalization, and identity, are also met by the chapters’ themes. These themes will make the text relevant for many years, and encourage instructors to add current events to their syllabi or class periods. These themes are the book’s leading strength, and it is an important strength for any language course in our increasingly global society. Purdue University Jessica Sturm GUÉDÉ, ALAIN. Le Chevalier de Saint-George. Achères: Dagan Jeunesse; and Toulouse: MAT, 2008. ISBN 978-2-9542829-0-7. Pp. 48. $24.00. Le Chevalier de Saint-George, written by Alain Guédé and exquisitely illustrated by Serge Hochain, recounts the life and times of the celebrated violin virtuoso and composer who was a “métis,” born to a white father, a noble, the Comte Guillaume-Pierre Tavernier de Boulogne, and to a slave mother, Nanon, in the French Antilles. With first-person narration, addressing the reader in the “tu” form, this delightful book traces Saint-George’s life as a youth in the French Antilles, wedged between slaves and the white...