Histoires d'avenirs: science-fiction pour le cours de français niveaux intermédiaire et avancé by Annabelle Dolidon, et Stéphanie Roulon (review)

Teaching literature in the second-language classroom requires authentic examples that prepare and motivate students to engage with the course material. It was with this criterion in mind that I was drawn to this innovative and highly adaptable volume, tailored to language learners' needs, which delves more deeply into the genre of science fiction with examples from diverse voices from France and the Francophone world. This volume consists of a main textbook divided into nine chapters (available in print and online versions at no cost through the open-source platform PDXScholar) and nine short stories to accompany each chapter (available at no cost for online reading only). The selection of short stories, the breadth of activities, and the enhanced assignments provided in the text are all outstanding. The authors have provided a solidly researched sociocultural framework for the genre that students will easily grasp. This background information is shared in the opening pages, along with a historical timeline of events that resonate with science fiction. The authors should be commended for implementing a pedagogically sound structure in this volume. Each chapter begins with a blurb about the author of the short story, followed by several pre-reading components, such as a vocabulary review, a discussion of themes, and several preparatory questions. After the class has had a chance to read and to discuss the short story, students are invited to reflect on a certain aspect of language—examples of which abound in the primary text—in the "Observatoire linguistique" section. Each chapter ends with additional communicative activities and well-designed prompts for short written assignments, oral presentations, and other extended authentic materials and activities based on the theme(s) explored in each short story. For example, one short story, which offers a conception of utopia, is considered alongside an excerpt from Rabelais's La vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel. This is just one example of the impressive work that the authors have accomplished in tying together science fiction with more canonical cultural artefacts. As the title indicates, this volume is appropriate for both intermediate- and advanced-level language and literature courses. Overall, the authors' careful curating of selected short stories is reflected in the compelling themes that each story brings to the classroom—topics such as cyborgs, colonization, robots, science and capitalism, genetic modification, biopolitics, our relationship to others, and ethical questions related to the environment and to animals. As presented, this volume will offer an opening to fascinating classroom discussions and will stimulate students' critical thinking. Some professors might wish to expand on the thought-provoking questions included in the accompanying textbook (depending on the number of students enrolled in the course and the language level of those students). Based on my students' feedback, the consensus was that, even if they were not all avid readers of the science fiction genre before the class, the activities presented in the textbook and the short stories that we read were successful in broadening their reading horizons and expanding their knowledge of the French language.