Bistro Escargot 1 by Jane Lapko, Karen Traynor (review)

during her adolescence. It is a must-read for middle school and high school teachers who incorporate the Holocaust into their curriculum. Ida Hoffman Firestone begins by recounting the pleasures of her childhood and how it all changes when a scar-faced man from the Gestapo shows up one day at the door of her family’s apartment. The story continues to include an account of the imprisonment of her father at Drancy, the clandestine ways her family moves from one safe house to the next across France, the painful separation of Ida from her mother and siblings, Ida’s “imprisonment” with a family sympathetic to Jews, and her starvation and near-death, as she tries to survive the horrors of war happening all around her. Throughout the story, the poems that Ida wrote during various stages of the war are presented in both French and English. She later explains that writing poems were her only hope of survival during those dark times: “I had never written poems before and, after liberation, I never wrote poems again. Still, during those dreadful nine months, my poems were as crucial to my survival as food itself” (93). This short story, written in English with the exception of Ida’s poems, is easily accessible to the middle school or high school reader. The text may appear simple at times, but the images that Ida and co-author Jerry Jennings paint through the words are powerful. This book would make an excellent addition to a classroom library or used in excerpts with other books and media about life in France during the German occupation of World War II. Mahomet-Seymour High School (IL) Katy Dueppen LAPKO, JANE, and KAREN TRAYNOR. Bistro Escargot 1. ISBN 978-1-55409-788-3. Pp. 71. Bistro Escargot 2. ISBN 978-1-55409-789-0. Pp. 70. Hamilton, ON: Tralco, 2012. DVD + Workbook. $49.95 (both: $84.95). Since these DVDs were age- and grade-level appropriate for my twelve-yearold daughter, who had just completed her second year of French in middle school, her opinion would be the litmus test for Bistro Escargot 1 & 2, the focus of which is to encourage students to speak. As such, the activities break from traditional pen-and-paper exercises and emphasize listening and speaking. My daughter found both DVDs engaging. She was particularly fond of the pop-up vocabulary images that appeared on the screen when a new word was introduced (the DVD allows the option of having the pop-ups or not). She related quickly to Jasmine, the twelve-year-old female character who must deal with Daniel, the male character who is a year younger than Jasmine and who depends on her when he does not understand everything in French. When I explained that Daniel’s character was created so as to reinforce the information being presented, it became clear that my daughter was so engrossed in the plotline that she did not realize how much she was learning. I was impressed at how well and how easily she was able to respond orally to many of the questions. Much of her success had to do with the fact that she found the young characters in Bistro Escargot and their situations to be realistic. Each of the six episodes (per DVD) is approximately five minutes in length. The workbooks provide complete scripts, along with a variety of pre-, while-, and after-reading/viewing activities. The “For Teachers” section guides instructors on how to use both texts effectively. The activities are physically engaging, as 808 FRENCH REVIEW 86.4 seen in the following instructions for the after-reading/viewing activity focusing on vocabulary acquisition within the context of a complete sentence: “The teacher reads each sentence and snaps fingers or claps hands at the blanks. Select individual students who raise their hands to volunteer an oral answer. Answers may be given as single words or in a complete sentence, depending on the ability of the students. If necessary, vocabulary may be written on the board to help as a reference” (8). The focus of each episode varies: 1—Bonjour/nom/âge/Je viens de .../ Je suis en...; 2—La mét...