Best French children's books?

[kayte]

My friend is traveling to France next week and she has offered to pick up some French books for DD (2.5). DD loves to her different sound of the language but all the books we have here are translated to French from English. I would love to get her some that are originally written in French as I think the rhythm would be better. But I am at a loss on authentic French children's literature past The Little Prince and How to Paint a Portrait of a Bird.

So anyone have some suggestions?

[Bean606]

I have relatives in France, and they send a lot of books for holidays. Currently, the favorite is "Petit Jaune et Petit Bleu." He also really loves "L'imagier de ma journee." I don't think that one would be considered classic French literature, but he likes it because it goes through the routine of a day, all in French. I think "Le Chat Botte" is classically French. The problem, I have found, with both the French and Italian stories that we have, is that they tend to be really scary for little ones! We received some CDs of French and Italian fairy tales, and they put the Disney villains to shame. I have to carefully screen before we let my son listen to them, especially around bedtime.

[elephantmeg]

Babar? We always loved the comics with Astrid and ???? when we were 80-9ish The name escapes me now.

ETA I think they are Astrix comics

[citymama]

One of my fav. recent French kids' books (2-5 age range) is "Le Roi est Occupe!" Hysterical (sort of in the Mo Willems tradition). http://www.amazon.fr/roi-est-occup%C3%A9-Mario-Ramos/dp/2211048293/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217264994&sr=1-4

We have several Babar books and a few other series. Take a look at amazon.fr for some ideas: http://www.amazon.fr/Jeunesse-Livres/s/qid=1217265112/ref=sr_pg_2?ie=UTF8&rs=301137&rh=n%3A301061%2Cn%3A301137%2Cp_n_feature_browse-bin%3A486184011&page=2

[dcmom2b3]

I think they're still in print.

http://www.amazon.fr/s/ref=nb_ss_b?__mk_fr_FR=%C5M%C5Z%D5%D1&url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Barbapapa&x=0&y=0