genre: children's fiction
The curmudgeonly Armand is happy with his simple life. He rambles the streets of Paris during the day, gathering bits of food and scraps of goods then stays cozy under a bridge along the Seine at night. He doesn't need work or a home to make his life feel complete. Well, he DIDN'T, until those three little children showed up under HIS bridge in HIS spot. Soon Armand finds he can't help himself from caring about these little ones and their mom which makes this Christmas season one that will change everything for him.
I read this book outloud to my two eleven year old sons. We appreciated Armand's gruffness and how he softens as he starts to create a relationship with this little family in need. The ending made my kids so happy, it was very cool to see them be invested in a story about homelessness and family-you-choose. For myself, it definitely feels dated and we actually had a conversation about the term "Gypsy" to describe people (it was written in the 1950s) and we decided together that we'd use the term "traveller" instead because sometimes that word is used as a slur and I couldn't actually tell if this group in the book is Roma or not. So I just substituted when I read but this did lead to some interesting discussion about people who live a nomadic lifestyle and they are definitely shown in a positive light in the book.
I'm not sure I could get away with reading it to my boys if they were much older but I'm glad we tried this little story. Both of my sons gave it five stars at the end. I'm probably more of three or three and a half so we'll round to four.
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