SECRET LETTERS FROM 0 TO 10

This charming translation of a French award-winner is certain to enchant readers on this side of the Atlantic. Ernest is ten, and his life is utterly predictable. He lives with his ancient grandmother and her equally ancient housekeeper in a silent house without television or telephone, populated with memories of the dead. Ernest knows his mother died when he was born, and his father disappeared thereafter. Into his completely ordered life breezes Victoria, a new classmate with 13 brothers and a decidedly unimpeded view of life. She introduces Ernest to everything from chocolate to her baby brother, and her exuberant, hugely entertaining family welcomes him. Before he knows it, Ernest has convinced his grandmother to go out one Sunday, and he begins to ask her, ever so tentatively, about his life, and hers. It is at Victoria’s home that he catches a glimpse on television of a man who looks just like him—could it be his father? All this is presented in a spritely and sweet style, occasionally eccentric and intensely French. Ernest’s father has written him a letter every day of Ernest’s life, and his first gesture is to send these, the “0 to 10” letters of the title, to him. A novel to cherish. (Fiction. 9-14)