MONSIEUR ROSCOE ON HOLIDAY

SYNOPSIS

Monsieur Roscoe is off on his summer holiday, meeting friends and learning lots of new words in French along the way!

Join Monsieur Roscoe as he camps, skis, sails and eats his way through France on the holiday of a lifetime!

A fun and colourful picture book from the bestselling illustrator of Oi Frog! and The Lion Inside, Monsieur Roscoe will make learning French exciting for the youngest children. Each new word appears alongside its English translation .

Click PLAY above to view the MONSIEUR ROSCOE book trailer .

‘It’s a sweet, accessible story with enticing drawings that should appeal to toddlers and older children alike.’ Alex O’Connell - The Times Book of the Week

‘The book is rewarding to pore over, inviting children to search for details on the busy, colourful, cartoony pages, reminiscent of Richard Scarry, although with a softer line.’ Nicollette Jones - The Sunday Times Book of the Week

‘Vibrant, vintage-inspired illustrations offer glorious Summer holiday escapism and the chunky hardback format would make this a perfect gift for a chatty toddler or curious pre-schooler.’ Woman’s Way Magazine

‘This book has become a repeat read in our house and my kids love saying the words after me.’ StoryMamas

WHO IS MONSIEUR ROSCOE?

I moved to France to follow mon amour, five years ago. Not knowing any French when I arrived (except the ‘Bonjour’ song I learnt in French Class 30 years ago) I’ve struggled over the years to grasp with the language. How I wished I paid more attention in French class!

I’m English, my wife is French, we live in Paris and we are raising our young daughter speaking English and French. There’s lots of other couples doing the same as us from different countries, raising their children to learn two languages from a very young age.

Learning a foreign language from a young age is much easier. Fact. And you’re less likely to be laughed at in the boulangerie when you say choucroute instead of chouquette.

When our daughter was just a baby, my wife and I were searching the shelves in a local bookshop for English/French bilingual books, I thought it might help me too. To our surprise there weren’t that many.

As a children’s book illustrator, we thought maybe we could create a bilingual picture book which introduces children to a foreign language in a fun and engaging way.

The initial character came to me several years ago while designing a dog for a pet food company. I did this very simple drawing of long eared dog sat in profile and I really liked it. So, I redrew it again, and again, then added a bowler hat, a suit, tweed trousers and brogues and Monsieur Roscoe was born.

Monsieur Roscoe is an imperfect character; he’s a blend of Mr Bean, Frank Spencer and Monsieur Hulot. He makes mistakes, but his charm and friendliness has made him a lot of friends from around the world, where communication is the foundation of friendship.

Monsieur Roscoe ‘On Holiday’ is the first introductory book of what we hope to be a series.

In this book, Monsieur Roscoe and his pet goldfish Fry go on holiday visiting friends – from wet campsites, snowy mountains, lakes and sunny beaches, there is plenty to explore.

This book introduces children to a variety of words and basic phrases, and English translation, children will be sure to pick up a new word.

FINAL ARTWORK

“It's whimsical, charming, educational and downright perfect, in fact as we already said on Twitter, this is easily our favourite thing of Jim's.” - Read It Daddy