Book Review: The Mice of Bistrot des Sept Freres

Book: The Mice of Bistrot des Sept Freres written and illustrated by Marie LeTourneau with Danielle Reed Baty

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Description:

This story serves up a delightful recipe for a children's book: take one adorable tale of Parisian mice who want to win the prize for the best cheese soup in France, add a full serving of the whimsical illustrations of Marie LeTourneau, mix in a dash of French language and a sprinkling of Parisian café culture, and voilà! We have The Mice of Bistrot des Sept Frères (Bistro of Seven Brothers).

With many basic French words cleverly woven into the story, readers will absorb the language without even realizing it. There is a pronunciation guide at the front of the book, and directions in the back to this website for the famous cheese soup recipe!






Rating: 5 stars

Review:

This is such a cute and wonderful little story. And I just love all the whimsical artwork. The story is about Chef Marcel who own a fancy restaurant or bistro in Paris. It's the hot spot for all the cool and hip mice in Paris. The bistro is known for having the best cheese soup in France and has won several awards for it.

Chef Marcel runs the restaurant with his seven sons: Jean-Pierrer, twins Jean-Paul and Jean-Henri, Jean-Philippe, Jean-Michel, Jean-Marc and Jean-Alexandre. He also has a daughter Petite Michelle, who is the youngest and is the bistro's hostess.

One day a telegram is sent to the bistro announcing that a judge will be visiting the restaurant to judge their infamous cheese soup to see if it's worthy to win the award for another year.

The telegram caused the father and all brothers to get stressed out and had them in a frenzy over preparing the soup. Once, Chef Marcel realized he didn't have the secret ingredient for the soup he had to dash out and leave the soup preparations to the sons. But while her brothers were stressed out and tripping all over each other in a panic, Petite Michelle was the sea of calm taking care of all the problems including the soup.

Petite Michelle may have seemed like a forgotten character at first but she turned out to be the shining star. And I love how the rest of the family realized how important she was to the bistro and the father even added her to the bistro's sign.

I thought this was such a lovely story and the artwork is funny and colorful. I think this story would be great for children, not only do they get a wonderful well written story they can also learn some basic French along the way. This is just perfect for a little foodie in the making.