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Ooh, La, La, Connie Pickles by Sabine Durrant (view source)
Revision as of 19:42, 29 August 2020
, 19:42, 29 August 2020no edit summary
But... a few hiccups along the way and the adventure isn't looking quite so enticing any more. There's the slight travel ''faux pas'' (they end up in the wrong country. Whoops), the politics of her ''famille Francaise'', a kleptomaniac new friend, a reunion with some long lost relatives and various forceful makeovers to contend with, and being actively pursued by 3 mad French boys really doesn't make things that much easier.
Luckily, Connie is predominantly a happy, positive girl, who makes neat observations of her stay in the French capital, and that makes for a diary which is funny, heart-warming and quite, quite eye -opening at times.
Connie is a likablelikeable, pleasant character and the problems she encounters are not especially dangerous or adult in nature, making this a "safe" read for younger girls. Her life revolves around boys, friends and her appearance, but all of these at a reasonably basic level - she wants her host's brother to notice her, and is alarmed by the effect the copious amounts of scrummy French cakes are having on her waistline, for example. It's interesting to read this book if you have also read the author's adult works, because the topics she covers - parent-child relationships, adults having affairs - crop up in both, but the way in which they are presented is neatly tailored to the intended audiences.
Connie's friends - Julie, Delilah, William - are all very ''nice'' kids too, and they all live in a simpler world where teenagers get lost on the streets of Paris but it all works out well in the end. In other words, the book is set in an appealing place where I could quite happily lose myself for a few hours.