Looking for an old textbook.

March 2, 2013 9:35 PM

My seventh grade French textbook had particularly charming illustrations. I don't remember the title of the book or what the cover looked like, but I'd know the illustrations if I saw them. They were mostly, if not entirely, in black-and-white and featured young people doing ordinary things like going to the beach. This textbook was used in about 1989 in a public school in southern New Hampshire. Is there any way of finding out more about it or perhaps buying a copy online? I suppose I could ask the school but I'd rather not.
posted by gentian to grab bag (5 answers total)

Would it be possible to get a hold of the curriculum book list for that year through the board office, or through a French teacher working in NH at that time? Are the booklists set at the county/state or federal levels?
posted by NorthernAutumn at 9:48 PM on March 2

If you have (or know anybody who has) a copy of the school's yearbook, it's possible you might see the textbook in a picture of a teacher's desk, or of the French Club, or something like that.

Seeing it might give you a title or a cover to start with.
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 10:07 PM on March 2

I used A Bord and Bon Voyage when I was in public school in Southern NH in the early 2000s ... it may be worth checking earlier editions of that textbook.
posted by ChuraChura at 10:10 PM on March 2 [1 favorite]

Random stab:
http://www.amazon.com/Entre-Nous-Communicative-Approach-Beginning/dp/0471549967/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1362290920&sr=8-4&keywords=entre+nous+french+textbook
When I "looked inside" on amazon.com, I could see some line drawings, so you could check that. I think this was the textbook I used in upstate NY in 1989 and I remember also cute line drawings...
posted by Tandem Affinity at 10:11 PM on March 2

Hmmm. I was in seventh grade about eight years earlier and not too far away, and I think we used Son et Sens, which may be what you're looking for. The young-people-going-to-the-beach thing definitely rang a bell: "On va a la plage? Oui, on va a la plage..." became a bit of a running joke all the way through to 8th grade graduation.

I don't specifically remember the illustrations, but an Amazon review of a different edition of the book makes reference to illustrations that sound similar to the ones you describe.

The Amazon page I linked to is definitely the edition we used (the cover is still clear in my mind), but I don't think it's been digitized anywhere. Google Books seems to have a different edition in its database, though, and a quick search for "plage" within it definitely brings up some very familiar conversational exercises.
posted by sesquipedalia at 10:39 PM on March 2 [2 favorites]