There’s a brag in this post, so beware! I was looking for crochet pattern books. My search brought me to amazon.fr, the French branch of amazon.com. The French word crochet means “hook” as well as referring to the craft of crochet.
A search on the keyword ‘crochet’ gave me all the books about crochet, and lots of books about some character named Capitan Crochet. Captain Hook, of course! I love, love words, and find this cross-lingual word play delightful.
I did end up ordering from amazon.fr, even though I don’t know any French (aside from the all-important ‘crochet’ and ‘tricot’). It’s pretty easy, because the buttons and icons look the same, even thought they are written in French. Also they’re all in the same places, so if you’re familiar with amazon.com, you don’t have much trouble with the other languages. Naturally, a VISA card speaks all languages.
Here are the books I got: a crochet book and a polymer clay book. Wait! Who is the author of that polymer clay book? Why, it’s Suzann Thompson! Yes, my polymer clay book was translated into French, shortly after it was originally published in 1999. The layout is exactly the same; only the words are different. It is called Pâte polymère— Pâte Fimo® in France, The Polymer Clay Sourcebook in England, and Polymer Clay for Everyone in the US.
Thank goodness the French version is still available after all these years. The US version is out of print, but I still have a few for sale.