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MY NOT-SO-GREAT FRENCH ESCAPE by Cliff Burke

MY NOT-SO-GREAT FRENCH ESCAPE

by Cliff Burke

Pub Date: March 14th, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-358-70150-7
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins

What better place for an unhappy preteen Californian to get his head straight than a summer farm camp next to a derelict French château?

As Rylan knows little about farming or French and is traveling with former best friend Wilder, the long trip shows every sign of being a dismal failure. But the revelation that his dad, who left when he was 3, lives in Paris and may be open to reconnecting prompts him to go anyway. And though Wilder immediately disappears into the sneering cool kids’ clique, Rylan discovers that routine chores—milking a goat, laboriously clearing a garden, learning to cook—and bonding with fellow “weirdos” through shared moments, from setting up a competitive garden stand to being attacked by the pigeons that have taken over the adjacent stately home, make for an experience rich enough to compensate for other emotional trials. Some mild national caricatures in the largely White-presenting cast (one camper is from Hong Kong) lighten the tone as the cast members connect and go beyond first impressions. If Burke doesn’t throw any twists wilder than that pigeon attack into the plot, he does leave his occasionally weepy protagonist with a better outlook on life and a new (if long-distance) set of friends.

A light dose of learning to let go of the past, with goats, good times, and coq au vin.

(Fiction. 9-13)