Château Moines
Publisher Description
September 1970: Scott’s mother has recently died and his father gets the crazy idea to move his family from California to Normandy. Now Scott has to learn to live without his mom while adjusting to France. In his seventh grade class there is only Ibrahim who comes from another country. Scott doesn’t even want to play his guitar anymore. Why does his father think that life will be better so far from home? Scott has no idea that his arrival is also a challenge to Sylvie. While her best friend is excited to have an American boy at school, Sylvie cannot say one word to Scott. She can’t even write good songs in her notebook anymore. Why is life so different since Scott moved to Château Moines? Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War protest era and told from the perspectives of twelve-year old Scott and Sylvie, this is a story about loss and friendship, music and peace, and also about secrets.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
French native Holingue stages this charming novel in a small village in Normandy in the early 1970s, braiding together American and French cultures via the alternating narratives of 12-year-old classmates Scott and Sylvie. Following the death of his French mother, Scott, a music-lover and budding political activist, has moved from Santa Monica, Calif., to Normandy with his sister and father. While Scott is flattered to discover that his American accent and blue eyes make him swoonworthy among the girls at his school, he has more pressing concerns as he continues to mourn his mother, feels disconnected from the antiwar movement in California, and adjusts to a life in the insulated community. As Scott spends more time with Sylvie, who is trying to build her courage as a songwriter, cultural and linguistic barriers begin to fall away. Though the dramatic conflicts are largely quiet and interpersonal, Holingue creates a vivid, multigenerational cast of provincial characters, addressing the simmering anti-immigrant sentiments within the village while evoking the larger political and social climate of the stormy era. Ages 8 12. (BookLife)
