If you are looking for a quick laugh, and then forget about what you laugh or learn about after you close the book, this is not the one to buy. I learn a lot of daily French talking from this book, as well as how French people think. To me, it is not just a comics book; it became my friend.

These cartoons are great--the teenagers are sullen and cranky, the characters find themselves in embarrassing situations, just like real life. I've used the French edition of this series, too, and this German version is just as good. You learn useful words such as "das Handy" (cell phone) and phrases like "im Internet surfen" (to surf the Internet. Very effective and a lot of fun.

I learned everyday English by reading a lot of comics and I always wanted a comic strip in Spanish. This book is exactly that and has a vocab reference for each strip. Great way to learn!

From the perspective of a Spanish teacher, this is a wonderful book to help build your Spanish vocabulary and comprehension.

The way the it's set up is: On one page there is a FULL page cartoon strip in color. There is a lot of dialogue, idioms, and basic vocabulary. One the opposite page is a list of vocabulary found in the comic strip in Spanish and English, divided into categories. The book is organized by cartoon title and topic. Some topics include: food & drink, money, travelling, etc. There are 30 cartoons in total, a well-organized table of contents, a glossary and a verb conjugation help section.

I definitely think this would be a great way to expand your knowledge (or your students' knowledge) of Spanish in a very interesting and humorous context.

The content is appropriate for high school and college level students, and for any level of study, although first and second year students would need help understanding the more complex structures.

Claire Bretecher has a talent for rendering complex emotional landscapes with just a handful of deftly sketched panels and a few words. In her only collection to be devoted to a single character, Bretecher gives us a no-holds-barred, unsentimental look into the life of a teenager. Agrippina is smart, mouthy, histrionic and infuriating. In the hands of Bretecher and her translator, Agrippina is refreshingly candid and rendered with the endearing clunkiness that real teenagers have.

Bretecher is good at giving her readers that little shiver of recognition that makes everyone feel caught in the act when they recognise parts of themselves in a creative work. Agrippina is a fun trip back to the good, bad and beastly days of teen hood. It's a must-have for sharp readers of any age.

Here is a collection of about thirty full-page cartoons. Each cartoon has a title: La Vie, L'Amitie, Le Cerveau, etc. The drawings are reminiscent of the French media (Paris Match?). Please examine the cover photo that AMAZON offers: it shows a good sample of these pictures.

The book uses a two-page format. The left page has the cartoon; the right page has three "helps" for the student.

1. Understanding the Text: a simple vocabulary list of the words.

2. Key Structures: translates "hard" expressions. Eg.: Ce que tu es bete! You sure can be dumb!

3. A supplemental word/expression list related to the cartoon's theme. These words/expressions are not actually in the text.

At the end of the book, there is a helpful glossary and a perfectly usless chart of fifty verbs.

CHEERS: Cartoons will add variety to your studies. Some of the drawings are funny: most are not. The vocabulary is a challenge to intermediate/advanced students. "Real life" conversational expressions are often used: (eg. "des tas de" and "flics").

JEERS: The cartoons could be a lot funnier! There is no pronunciation guide. A table of phonetic symbols is presented on page 7, but it's never used elsewhere in the book. Warning: there's nothing to inform students that such constructions as "Tu es" would normally be pronounced "Tay". (It's often written as "T'es", but this book sticks with "Tu es".)

BOTTOM LINE: This book is a pretty good value for the money. It offers a chance to read some colloquial expressions normally encountered in the movies rather than in print. Not as much fun as it could be, though.