Easy French Reader Premium, Third Edition: A Three-Part Text for Beginning Students + 120 Minutes of Streaming Audio (Easy Reader Series) 3rd Edition

I teach Spanish to college students, and the Spanish version of this is one I always recommend to students for supplemental summer study. I got the French one for myself, and so far I love it. The app works well (I believe there was a problem with earlier versions, but I haven't experienced any problems as of yet).The recordings are recordings of the readings and the comprehension questions, so you can use them in several ways. For example:1) Listen as you read along, so you get the pronunciation at the same time. This is good if you have no idea about pronunciation or if you are an absolute beginner.2) Read first for visual comprehension, and then listen to see if you understood the pronunciation you produced in your head (or aloud, if you read aloud). This is good if you've had previous study and already understand the basics of pronunciation and want to brush up.3) Listen without reading if you only want listening practice. Again, good if you've had some previous study.The comprehension questions are also presented in audio format, and one great thing about the app is that you can record your answers to the comprehension questions before listening to the answers. This way you can record yourself, listen to the answer, then go back and listen to yourself to check your pronunciation against the version given. In short, I really like this book for an intro or brush-up to the language.Shipping: arrived on time and in good shape.

I like these easy reader three part texts for beginners. I bought the Spanish 3rd edition awhile back and now the French and it is equally likeable; I would likely purchase these specific editions for several languages if they have them. Aside of whether you access or are able to access the audio, I think the text itself is a great stand alone resource for beginners. I studied a bit of basic grammar and pronunciation before diving in them so as to try and pronounce it close to correctly as possible while reading...You get a basic level character interplay reading to start, a nice history brief of the country you're studying and lastly some famous native literature readings.

Concerning the first 1/3 of the book, it is pretty "meh" in my opinion. I also abhors the app that reads the audio to you - it is very poorly designed. I would have much preferred a CD or mp3. The story is rather boring. I think almost a full two chapters were about sitting in a classroom describing the movements of a fly. I cannot recommend this text to a true beginner - the difficulty ramps up pretty quickly and it will eventually outpace you.With that said, the second two thirds of the book is where the gold is found. There are 22 lessons on French history, from the founding of France to modern day. They are each 2-3 pages, and I found them pretty compelling. I would put the reading level at about A2, and they are excellent reading practice indeed. After the history lessons, there are maybe 10 more 2-3 page readings from famous French authors. The text doesn't gloss many words, so be prepared to look up some things (not many people at an A2 level would know the word for "invade," for example).It may not have ten dollars worth of material if you are a stickler for money, but if you can get it used for 3-5 dollars, I would say this is a must have for an independent French learner.

Beautiful! Well thought-out book. This is the type of book I have being searching for, for my kids to learn how to read and answer French comprehensions. Indeed, it's cool. I strongly recommend it for any growing reader in the French Language. I will even buy more of such, if I see.

Nice book and good reading

Very useful

I will leave my original review below, but I have updated my rating from one to four stars since they have updated the app. Now that it works as it should, I love it.I am extremely disappointed in my purchase and will be returning it to Amazon. I have been waiting for this product since April. I am a French teacher and love this text, however my students (who are homeschooled and only see me once a week) need to HEAR as much French as possible. An earlier edition of the book came with a CD so that students could listen to the first section of the book (about a third of the book.) When I saw they had a third edition coming about, one that says it has 36 audio recordings (which would be more than the previous edition) I was excited to see they were providing more recordings so I decided to pre-order and wait til the estimated date it would be ready: May 15th. Before May 15th came, they had moved that date to July. I was irritated, but what can you do.Today they finally arrived. NO CDs. So I realize they meant there was an app with the audio recordings. Fine, I will get the app. I follow their instructions, download the app and open it up. The description on the inside of the book tell me that this app is "free with these French titles" and it instructs me to "choose your title and chapter" once I open the app. Yeah, one small problem with that. The Easy French Reader is not a choice! They have four titles to choose from, leaving two titles out completely. The back of the book says that the app provides audio recordings of 36 passages, so maybe they are still in progress adding those files to the app but as of right now I basically have a book that I waited three months for, which instead of having MORE recordings than before, actually has ZERO recordings.To give them the benefit of the doubt, the release date of the book appears to be 10 days from now . . . so perhaps the app will be updated at that time and will include the recordings I expected. I will update if I learn anymore about it.