Everybody Bonjours!

A couple of weeks ago I was in the kitchen making dinner, when I noticed that Emilia was really quiet for a few minutes. (Whenever she is quiet, it typically means that she has her little hands in something that they clearly should not be in.) So I yelled, 'Emilia? Whatcha doing?' and she yelled back, 'Ee-bodie Boe-jours!' And sure enough, I walked to her room and there she was —sitting in her big green chair with the book Everybody Bonjours! on her little lap. It was a lovely site to see.

My friend Jane gave me a copy of this book when it was hot off the press, and I tucked it away until I knew that Emilia wasn't going to try to eat and/or tear out the pages. (She's always been pretty good with her books, though. Not like some kids I've seen.) Anyway, over the past couple of months she has developed a huge love for this book, and we read it together several times a day. It amazes me how long she will just sit and look at the pictures (in her green chair while mama cooks dinner.)

Everybody Bonjours! was written by Leslie Kimmelman and illustrated by Sarah McMenemy. It follows the idea of the This Is... series (you know, This is Paris, This is London, This is New York, and so on) but is done, in my humble opinion, so much nicer. The story is about a little girl who goes to Paris with her parents and her little brother. While there, they see all the sites and do all sorts of French things — bonjouring all the while, naturally. The book is filled with images of all things French — not just the Eiffel Tower. (Although, thanks to Everybody Bonjours!, Madeline, and The Secret Circus, Emilia now recognizes the Eiffel Tower everywhere. I was wearing a Villanova tee-shirt a week or so ago and Emilia pointed to an 'A' and said, 'Eiffel Tower!')

We've read the book so many times that Emilia nearly has it memorized (as do her parents). And she now gives a running commentary on each page. While in the shoe store: 'I like those shoes!'; while at the Louvre: 'Hi, Mona Lisa!'; while sitting down at a café: 'Old man going sooooo slooow!' And my personal favorite is when they get crêpes. It is simply a picture of the little girl and her family at a crêpe stand, and it says 'Batter-pouring.' To which Emilia chimes in, 'Batter pouring down rain!'

Everybody Bonjours! is one of the only books that I do not mind reading over and over and over again. In fact, it has been a very welcome break from Frosty the Snowman and The Wheels on the Bus — both of which require singing throughout. And as an added bonus, it fills her little head with images of a place that I'm dying to take her. Some day. But not today.