Anni's Diary of France  •  Anni Axworthy TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2000 •  PAPER  • 32 PAGES • MIDDLE READERS (Age 9-12) Taking the form of an illustrated diary, this book is a lively record of a family trip to France, featuring food, art and history. Illustrations, photographs and informative text crowd the scrapbook-style pages. Written for young readers ages 8-10. (FRN46, $6.95)
Around the World in Eighty Days  •  Jules Verne  •  Barry Moser LITERATURE •  1988 •  HARD COVER  • 242 PAGES • YOUNG ADULTS This edition of the many adventures of Phileas Fogg features the illustrations of Barry Moser. It took more than one hundred years after this book was published for someone to finally make it around the world in a balloon. (GEN32, $25.99)
Cathedral, The Story of its Construction  •  David MacAulay ART & ARCHITECTURE •  1973 •  HARD COVER  • 77 PAGES • MIDDLE READERS (Age 9-12) In this illuminating book for young readers, master draughtsman MacAulay presents text and innovative drawings that detail the planning and construction of a 13th-century Gothic cathedral. It's a masterpiece. (EUR24, $18.00)
Eyewitness Art: Monet  •  Jude Welton ART & ARCHITECTURE •  1999 •  HARD COVER  • 64 PAGES • MIDDLE READERS (Age 9-12) A slim, oversize biography of the painter, targeted to middle schoolers and featuring hundreds of drawings and color reproductions of Monet's most famous work. (GEN192, $15.99)
Eyewitness: Impressionism  •  Jude Welton ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2000 •  HARD COVER  • 64 PAGES • MIDDLE READERS (Age 9-12) A visual survey of Impressionism for kids ages 9-12, including hundreds of images and ingeniously arranged facts. (GEN194, $15.99)
The Family Under the Bridge  •  Natalie Savage Carlson  •  Garth Williams LITERATURE •  1989 •  PAPER  • 123 PAGES • MIDDLE READERS (Age 9-12) Armand was a hobo back in the days when hoboes threw Christmas parties -- and were Parisian! This charming, wonderfully human story recounts the Parisian adventures of Armand and the three homeless children who made him shed his grumpy ways. It won a Newbery Medal. With illustrations by Garth Williams, of "Little House" book fame. Ages 9-12. (FRN313, $5.99)
Linnea in Monet's Garden  •  Christina Bjork  •  Lena Anderson  •  Joan Sandin ART & ARCHITECTURE •  1987 •  HARD COVER  • 52 PAGES • YOUNG READERS (Age 4-8) A very floral introduction to the art of Monet and his Impressionist circle for children ages 5 to 8. Linnea and her neighbor frolic in Monet's garden at Giverny and look at Impressionist paintings in Paris. It's a great primer for kids on their way to Giverny and a gentle first lesson in art history. Nicely illustrated, too. (FRN312, $16.00)
The Little Prince  •  Antoine de Saint Exupery  •  Richard Howard LITERATURE •  2000 •  PAPER  • 83 PAGES • FAMILY Antoine de Saint-Exupery's modern fable, enshrined in the hearts of thousands, is re-translated by Richard Howard. First published in 1943, "Le Petit Prince" tells of a naif extraterrestrial waif who wanders from planet to planet, learning wisdom as he goes. Though not set in France, it's a French classic. (FRN361, $10.00)
A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver  •  E.L. Konigsburg LITERATURE •  2001 •  PAPER  • 208 PAGES • YOUNG ADULTS A marvelous fictionalized portrait of Eleanor of Aquitaine who was queen of France and England successively, traveler to Constantinople, wife of a future saint, mother of Richard the Lionheart and for 15 years a prisoner of the English Crown. E.L. Konigsburg's irreverent, feminist, educational young-adult novel begins on a cloud in heaven, where Eleanor is awaiting the induction into heaven of her husband Henry II of England, who has spent the last 800 years in -- well -- not in heaven, at any rate. The rest of the book is a flashback. (GBR245, $5.99)
The Red Keep: A Story of Burgundy in Year 1165  •  Allen French  •  Andew Wyeth LITERATURE •  1997 •  PAPER  • 370 PAGES • YOUNG ADULTS A classic tale of knights and robbers in the French countryside for young adults, much enhanced by Andrew Wyeth's incomparable illustrations. (FRN81, $15.95)
The Scarlet Pimpernel  •  Baroness Orczy LITERATURE •  2000 •  PAPER  • 320 PAGES • YOUNG ADULTS Odd's fish, m'dear, you must read this novel. Wildly popular since his debut in 1903, the man known as the Scarlet Pimpernel is a foppy English lord by day and a daring genius by night. The time is the French Revolution, specifically Robespierre's Reign of Terror, and in Paris the aristos are going to the guillotine by the hundreds. One man, and one man only, seems poised to save their lives…"is he from heaven, or is he from hell, that damned elusive pimpernel?" Ages 12 and up. (FRN363, $9.95)
The Three Musketeers  •  Alexandre Dumas LITERATURE •  1998 •  PAPER  • 696 PAGES • YOUNG ADULTS This French standard is rip-roaring fare for young adults, who'll stay up 'til the wee hours to find out what became of D'Artagnan, Aramis, Athos, Porthos and the nefarious Lady DeWinter. What a page-turner! Ages 12 and up. (FRN362, $12.95)
The Yellow House, Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin Side by Side  •  Susan Goldman Rubin  •  Joseph A. Smith ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2001 •  HARD COVER • MIDDLE READERS (Age 9-12) An illustrated book depicting the two months Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin spent together in Provence. Intended for children, but appropriate for anyone with an interest in the painters and their friendship. (FRN285, $18.95)