Holiday notebooks are not just for children!

It is not only the scrabble or the arrow words in the lives of summer visitors. Several activities for adults offer their readers to play with the French language and their literary culture. “Télérama” tested three.

AU beginnings of summer, Rihanna found the greatest chic, during her visit to France, to photograph her toddler leafing through the famous holiday notebook Incollables (5-6 years) at the back of his car. That is to say how essential these booklets seem essential. The phenomenon has not been limited to children for a few years. A panoply of summer booklets is now intended for teens and adults, stirring the trip, games (and sports) intellectuals and other distractions. Telerama Eat at least three of them devoted to French and literature, and took advantage of a few less dense days to try it.

Fastest

Bring sappho closer to Taylor Swift, say of the Renaissance “It’s vintage” or imagine a battle Between Eminem and Jean de la Fontaine… Martin Boujol goes a bit far. The Instagnant of @la.nuit.sera.mots uses sometimes questionable comparisons, but he gives a big freshness to literature in his notebook And if we read, which is full of quiz, extracts and tests. Its first part, on the historic currents, manages to flatter the summer of knowing a little and giving it the pleasure of learning a little more. We revisit each great literary period with riddles, arrow words and answers to link, before stopping on the different genres and some major themes that cross all literature. Small boxes offer extracts from classics or large contemporary books. Some thematic double pages will leave hermetic some readers: travel literature or manga cannot please everyone. Others will find the themes too close to the college and high school program. But the result remains fun, if the reader is not too likely.
We liked: Do the exercises with your teenager, aloud, to get into conversations on our favorite books.
We liked it less: The “true or false” exercise, which leaves the impression of being able to retain sornettes, by dint of thinking about different theories.

What if we read? Notebooks for book loversby Martin Boujol, ed. Solar, 80 p., € 10.95.

Most classic

Teacher in classical letters in REP +college, Karine Dijoud gave a little brother to her notebook of French language lovers from last year. What’s wrong with “Obnibuler» or “Arborigen” ? What is the exact meaning of such Latin phrases? Written -r or -ard at the end of the following words … The Instagrameuse of @Lesparenthesisselementaires immerses us in the heart of the multiple difficulties of the language of Molière, through many spelling, etymology, and even rebus exercises. We find the knowledge of French that we should all have and which always end up missing. The level of difficulty is unequal, but that’s good: it allows you to succeed on a page, after having failed on the previous one.
We liked: Hunt mistakes introduced into extracts from classic texts, for the pleasure of being on the side of the dictation of dictation and that of discovering, or rediscovering, large authors.
We liked it less: But why had we never noticed that the conjugation can be so painful?

The activity book. Quiz, anagrams, Charades, word games … for lovers of the French languageby Karine Dijoud, ed. Gallimard, 64 p., € 10.95.

To discover also at Gallimard, in the Black Series collection, for lovers of the thriller, the Investigation notebook. Eight mysteries to solve, dozens of games to get there, by Nicolas Bonnefoy.

Most facetious

On the cover, it is not Einstein but Molière draws the tongue. The tone is set: the linguists landed offer sharp culture … and impertinence. As in this grid of mixed words where they invite summer visitors to find the words absent from the 9ᵉ edition of the Dictionary of the French Academy which was nevertheless wanted to “Anchored in its time”. And “Kisses”, “cool” and “girl” does not appear there, how to believe that there is the most recent “Female” or “Vapoter” ? The booklet is not content to ease the French institution, but deciphers there, through games, as much the old French as a text by Aya Nakamura or gender questions, with a resolutely open and inclusive look, but never overlooking. If some exercises may seem difficult, the humor that the authors put to defend their proposals makes the whole quite pleasant.
We liked: The very accomplice tone and modern exercises on verlan or textism (SMS language), seen anywhere else.
We liked it less: Spend a lot of time in the answers, because it is more often to learn than playing.

The activity book. French languageby linguists, ed. of the workshop, 80 p., € 12.50.

AMBIANCE…
Installed in a meeting room, journalists of Telerama blow a lot by opening the activity notebooks. “There is far too much reading, it’s not very vacation”, Do you whisper in a corner. When an anonymous fails to combine the verb “drink” in the simple past of the subjunctive (Gallimard), we are bordering on the resignation. Then relaxation settles. We intend to recite “wesh” on all tones to answer a question of linguists. “It’s okay, I have everything”, Reassures the head of the book service on the double page “Nobel Prize” of the Solar Editions notebook. Besides her, the editor -in -chief cinema derives on the adaptation rebus of films among linguists. Some leave the smartphones to cheat (the answers are however in the last pages). We put ourselves there, three, we laugh. Verdict: “Finally, we had fun, it makes you curious. And the notebooks complement each other. »»