STALKED--IN PARIS AND IN THE MOUNTAINS! Don't be surprised if you can read a little French by the time you finish this delightful spy-adventure! This tale is cute and clever with much tongue-in-cheek humor from a boy's standpoint. We meet 12-year-old Johnny Littlehorn of Wyoming, who starts off as a spoiled baby, but who thankfully matures to become a local hero! Since his father is still serving in the Army just after WW2, John injures his leg while trying to be the man about the ranch. He fears he will be crippled for life--or at least the crucial teen years. When his father returns he annoucnes that the whole family will sail to Europe for a few months while he helps with the allied peace effots. What does a lame cowboy care about his French mother's village--a tiny one-road hamlet in the boonies of some old mountains? While at the hotel in Paris, Johnny is confined to a wheelchair, but gradually realizes that he is being stalked by a thin, bearded man whose face and manners give him the shivers. The hotel porter is in cahoots with this mysterious creep, who slyly pumps Johnny for information. The boy is frustrated that he can not control his own fate, yet his parents think his screams of protest and denunciations of the wicked duo are just childish fantasy. No one takes him seriously, but We know that he is not imagining things, for there is some deadly serious plotting underfoot. And He is the only one to catch on! His terror mounts as he is cruelly manipulated by this sinister pair, but for what nefarious purpose? Then John meets his vivacious Uncle Paul who rescues him in more ways than one. Johnny wants a fancy bike more than anything, so he makes a deal with his parents to learn to walk without crutches for two miles and to write a letter in French-thus acknowledging his French heritage. His Uncle--a man of honor and pride despite the family's financial and social decline--has a grandiose dream: to construct a safe glider, which will be bought by a plane manufacturer, so that he can restore the family's pre-war status. Paul and Johnny travel by train to this rustic village, but even on the rails Johnny is sure that he is being watched. Everyone needs an uncle like Paul, who is the only one who believes the boy. Unfortunatley there is real danger in gentle St. Charmant as well, for Nazis are known to be still hiding in the mountains of post-war France. There is still suspicion as people wonder who was the local collaborator. It takes John and his new French buddy to unmask the real traitor! Boys will love this book but girls should read it too, for the French girl shows wit, spunk and compassion as she helps our hero. Will Johnny win his bicycle? Will Uncle Paul ever get his avion to fly? Only one way to find out. Have fun reading and pick up a few French words the easy way! April 9, 2012. I welcome dialogue with teachers.
What a delightful way to learn French! To his dismay, 13-year-old John is sent to the small French village of St. Chamant for the summer with his French uncle, his mother's brother, while his parents are in England. The year is 1946. John, or Jean as he learns he is now to be known, understands no French and has no interest in learning at first, but slowly, almost effortlessly, he begins to pick it up, especially when he makes friends with twins about his age. While his uncle works on building a glider that will hopefully resolve his financial woes, John becomes obsessed with finding a suspected Nazi soldier hiding out in the nearby mountains.This is a YA-level mystery that kept me completely engaged and charmed while adding quite a bit to my limited French vocabulary. The French is very cleverly woven into the story so that you learn right along with John as he and his friends get in over their heads in a dangerous adventure. This book should be required reading for every beginning student of French for encouragement as well as language learning. It's delightfully entertaining, with a little history of post-WW II France thrown in.In the author's postscript, we learn that he is the grandson of a French immigrant who came to the US after The Great Wine Blight of 1860. The author whose real name was Darwin L. Teilhet (1904-1964) actually did return to St Chamant, his ancestral home, when he was 21 to build a glider, an event that was declared a legal holiday by the town's mayor.
Do You like book The Avion My Uncle Flew (2004)?
gr 4+1946 St Chamant, France 12 year old Johnny Littlehorn can't believe his parents are sending him to spend the summer in a tiny little French village to live with an uncle he's never met. World War II has recently ended and all Johnny wants to do is be at his family's ranch. He is sure that he will be completely bored since he doesn't even speak any French! As his uncle teaches him French and Johnny becomes interested in the airplane/avion his uncle is building, Johnny discovers that village life isn't so bad. His visit becomes a bit more exciting when Johnny discovers evidence that a Nazi spy is hiding in the mountains near the village. The villagers, except his uncle, don't believe him, but Johnny is determined to find proof.The book had a bit of a slow start, but once Johnny finds evidence of a Nazi spy it picks up speed. The story includes some information about post WWII US (where the story begins), but contains more information about post WWII France. I would recommend this story to anyone interested in airplanes/aviones, post WWII France, and learning some French (along with Johnny, the reader learns some French)
—Amanda
Very fun read-aloud for someone who is studying French. Just after World War 2, a boy spends the summer with his uncle in a small French village. He learns French words one by one (and continues using them as he tells this story), so by the end of the book, we can read and understand three full pages of French! I read this to 11-year-old Josh and he wasn't as excited about the French words (or hearing me practice pronouncing them repeatedly) but he loved the suspenseful parts about the boy discovering a Nazi hiding in the mountains and the boy's attempts to get away from the bad guys, through a cemetery at night... Josh is fascinated with flight so he loved the parts about building and flying an airplane/glider and he let me know if the plane (as described) could truly fly. (He thought it could, though he said the picture on the cover is NOT accurate and would not survive a flight.)
—Alicia
I was given this book by a friend who recommended it. I thought it was okay. The story starts out in English but over the story the character is constantly introduced to more French vocabulary which climaxes in the last few pages being entirely French.It's a children's book. The language is simple, especially the French that the main characters, even the adults, say. So, it was not engaging on that level. However, for a children's book, I did think the plot was fair. It's similar to a book I'd write if I had to write a children's book introducing them to French, so that's why I rated it as a four.
—Nick
