For parents & teachers

French–English Books for French Immersion Families (Livres bilingues)

For French immersion families, including parents who don’t speak French. Pour les familles en immersion française.

By Sean Lee · October 22, 2026

The French immersion challenge

In French immersion programs, children learn at school in French, but many parents don’t speak French themselves. That makes reading together at home tricky. Bilingual books solve it: the parent can follow the English while the child reads the French, sentence by sentence.

How our French–English editions work

Each page has the same illustration as the English book, and under every English sentence its French translation, in blue. The French is standard French, written for children.

Chaque page présente la même illustration que le livre en anglais et, sous chaque phrase anglaise, sa traduction française. Les enfants lisent le français pendant que les parents suivent en anglais.

The books (Les livres)

• Pride and Prejudice · Orgueil et Préjugés
• Little Women · Les Quatre Filles du docteur March
• Sense and Sensibility · Raison et Sentiments

Supporting French reading when you don’t speak French

• Let your child be the French expert: they read the French line, you read the English.
• Ask your child to explain a French word to you; teaching builds confidence.
• Look for words that look alike: famille / family, lettre / letter, musique / music.
• Keep it short and regular: one page at bedtime beats an hour on Sunday.
• Celebrate effort, not perfect pronunciation.

French uses « guillemets » for dialogue instead of quotation marks. Spotting them is an easy first win for young readers.