A gentle, evocative story of a young Parisian boy's summer in 1960s rural Provence. When Yannick learns that he is to stay with his Aunt Mathilde in the South of France, he cannot believe his luck. If the paintings of his mother's beloved Cezanne are to be believed, surely Provence is paradise itself. So begins an idyllic month for the young boy: roaming the gentle hills and rolling valleys of Aix-en-Provence; daydreaming about his beautiful cousin Amandine; helping in his aunt and uncle's bustling village inn; feeling that he has come to the most wonderful place in the world. Then the idyll is spoilt when an important local comes for dinner and Yannick accidentally destroys a precious drawing the man leaves behind. Yannick is devastated by what he has done, and resolves to put things right. But in so doing he makes a surprising discovery...

 

This book has been graded for interest at 8-11 years.

There are 64 pages in this book. This book was published 2014 by Walker Books Ltd .

Timothee de Fombelle is a much-admired French playwright. Initially working as a teacher/lecturer, he soon turned to writing and in 2006 produced his first novel, Toby Alone, known in his native France as Tobie Lolness. Highly acclaimed, it has been translated into 22 different languages and has won numerous prizes. Toby's extraordinary story continues in Toby and the Secrets of the Tree. Francois Place is one of France's leading artists and is also a well-praised fiction writer. Some of his best works include Les Derniers Geants ("The Last Giants"), Le Vieux Fou de Dessin ("The Old Man Crazy About Drawing") and L'Atlas des Geographes ("The Atlas of the Geographers of Orbae"). He lives in France. Michael Morpurgo has brought together poems by writers as diverse as Spike Milligan and Stevie Smith, John Lennon and Jo Shapcott.