Books in French for 2- to 3-year-old?

[choucroutegarnie]

I speak French to my 2-year-old and, though it is my mother tongue, I seem totally unable to find French story/picture books that he likes.
Maybe it's just me, but all I seem to find on Amazon.fr is really dull stuff - nothing seems funny or witty like the Gruffalo etc in English. My friends and family on the Continent all have older kids and can't remember what worked for them at that age.
Before I make any more disappointing purchases, I thought I'd ask for nominations!
Any audiotapes recommendations also hugely welcome. Merci!

What about your local library, you could ask?

Claude Ponti! Le Doudou Mechant! It's really lovely and weird. Well, anything by him except Okilele, which is depressing.

I'll look at my shelves for more recommendations ...

I bought The Very hungry Caterpilllar on Amazon.fr but I couldn't find many more that I liked. I wanted to use them with primary children learning french. I eventually bought a set of stories that have both french and english text but they are not well known picture books or anything. i think they are specifically for teaching purposes eg.
\link{http://www.amazon.com/Suis-Trop-Gros-Read-French/dp/0812064542}
hope that works not much good at links!!

It's really worth visiting a French bookshop if you can. But I'd also recommend:

• French non-fiction kicks ass. Kididoc and the Mes Premieres Decouvertes series, by Gallimard (which you can buy translated into English! Given how the English are about translated books, that really tells you something!) Their stuff on building sites are very popular here, but we're a boyish household.
• I like Caillou, but then, I'm used to Quebec.
• Le Grand Voyage de M. Caca. Very good.
• Bali va a la mer is ok
• Je mangerais bien un enfant is good, if slightly unrealistic about an actual crocodile diet
• Oh, we're mad for Joann Sfar, who I think writes in French? Probably a bit old for your kid?
• Oh, we have an English translation of one called Splosh, about a well. Very sweet.
• And one called 'Commen Bien Elever un papa' or words to that effect. Probably a bit old.

Thanks everyone, that's brilliant. I particularly like the 'Grand Voyage de Mr Caca' suggestion. Extremely topical in our household at the moment.
Keep the suggestions going and I'll post first-hand reviews in a few days

Grand Voyage is very good, and medically accurate, in its way. There's bile, and red and white blood cells, and everything!

My daughter loves Popi, it's a monthly magazine (Bayard). You can subscribe online. I find it really good.

I agree. DD is 2.2 and loves Popi and the Petit Ours Brun books which are feature one of the characters from Popi. Also anything we get from the library by Jeanne Ashbé is a hit.

Petit Ours Brun is a big favourite with DS (20mnths) here toon. He also loves 'La Nouvelle Maison d'Archie' which is one of those sticker books, translated from the TV programme Koala Brothers - which he has actually never seen. There is also a series called 'Petites Histoires pour les tout-petits' which comes out monthly & has 3 stories in each time published by Milan Jeunesse. You could look on their website: www.milanpresse.com DS loves this too. There is also the 'Tchoupi' series of books.

Try all the series of books by the husband and wife team George Hallensleben (illustrator) and Anne Gutman (author). The pictures are really beautiful and the stories aren't bad for French stories.

Something I have realised bringing up my bilingual/bicultural daughter is that French children's stories nearly always include an authority figure (father/mother/teacher) correcting the character with which the child reading the story is supposed to identify. Moral guidance comes from outside the child and morality is a set of rules to be obeyed, with dire consequences if not. Whereas English children's stories are far more frequently about characters with whom a child can identify as autonomous, growing individuals learning from their own life experiences and mistakes. I MUCH prefer the English approach as I believe it to be a far more character forming attitude.

My daughter also likes Babar - worth not forgetting about, and easy to buy on Amazon.fr.

Thank you everyone. I have found Leo et Popi and some kind of Babar lookalike in a shop, which have both gone down well.

Still waiting for the Amazon.fr delivery of the rest...

YOu are right, Anna8888, the French approach is very different from the English one. This is perhaps why there are so many translations of English stories into French and so few the other way around.