[7] 100 things challenge : Books!!!
7. Tistou les pouces verts
Do you recall the book that made you fall in love with books? The book that you read and suddenly you discovered that there was something behind kiddy books, big letters and flashy drawings. The book that made you realise that there were authors that took kids for intelligent beings. The book that opened wide a door you had only seen from afar?
My book was Tistou Les Pouces-Verts.
Maurice Druon was a member of the Académie Française, the highest french temple of french litterature whose member are elected by the current residents, who are called The Immortals. To get out of L'Academie, you have to die. Only then are you replaced. And to get the seat, you need to be voted in by The Immortals. Not always an easy task, as the current candidates can attest.
So not only could Maurice Druon write but he tended to write historical stories, for a mature, adult and educated audience. Not always the kind of author you expect a children book from.
A yet he wrote this classic children tale, a poetic take on the life of a little boy whose dad is an arm dealer. A child who, as it turns out, has green thumbs. He can make flowers grow everywhere. He makes roses grow in the hospital, some other flowers grow over the jailhouse and so what can happen, when Tistou decides to see what happens if he touches Daddy dearest tanks?
It's a book about children who decides that adults who don't know better should be shown better by children. It's about a child that threaten the adults with his decision, it's a child that is loved by his parents and who has them re-evaluate some things by seeing their son being himself. It's a book about a child who decides to walk all the ways to the stars.
Maurice Druon died in 2009. He was like my childhood hero, the man who opened a door for me, who gave me a gift that keeps on giving.
Do you recall the book that made you fall in love with books? The book that you read and suddenly you discovered that there was something behind kiddy books, big letters and flashy drawings. The book that made you realise that there were authors that took kids for intelligent beings. The book that opened wide a door you had only seen from afar?
My book was Tistou Les Pouces-Verts.
Maurice Druon was a member of the Académie Française, the highest french temple of french litterature whose member are elected by the current residents, who are called The Immortals. To get out of L'Academie, you have to die. Only then are you replaced. And to get the seat, you need to be voted in by The Immortals. Not always an easy task, as the current candidates can attest.
So not only could Maurice Druon write but he tended to write historical stories, for a mature, adult and educated audience. Not always the kind of author you expect a children book from.
A yet he wrote this classic children tale, a poetic take on the life of a little boy whose dad is an arm dealer. A child who, as it turns out, has green thumbs. He can make flowers grow everywhere. He makes roses grow in the hospital, some other flowers grow over the jailhouse and so what can happen, when Tistou decides to see what happens if he touches Daddy dearest tanks?
It's a book about children who decides that adults who don't know better should be shown better by children. It's about a child that threaten the adults with his decision, it's a child that is loved by his parents and who has them re-evaluate some things by seeing their son being himself. It's a book about a child who decides to walk all the ways to the stars.
Maurice Druon died in 2009. He was like my childhood hero, the man who opened a door for me, who gave me a gift that keeps on giving.