(Image credit: www.powells.com)Cormier, Robert. Frenchtown Summer. New York: Delacorte Press, 1999.
As Eugene comes of age in the tenements of Frenchtown, he comes face to face with tragedy, love, excitement, and mystery.
Summer is a time of maturity, a time of harvest, and for twelve year old Eugene it is a time of tremendous growth. In this story, an older Eugene is taken back to the way it was in his memory. A memory steeped in sweltering heat and the emotional conditions that capture the mind of a twelve year old dreamer.
"That was the summer of my first paper route,
and I walked the tenement canyons
of Frenchtown
delivering The Monument Times,
dodging bullies and dogs,
wondering what I was doing
here on planet Earth,
not knowing yet that the deep emptiness
inside me
was
loneliness."
But Eugene finds he is not alone in this world. There are enemies to battle, friends to find adventure with, and first loves to dream upon. And there is Uncle Med, gone suddenly. And in the middle of sadness there is an orange airplane with lightening streaks of white on the fuselage set down in the middle of a Frenchtown backyard. Impossible you say? Read Frenchtown Summer to discover for yourself.
Los Angeles Times Book Prize. School Library Journal Best Book.
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