Zazoo
by Richard Mosher
Book Description
Zazoo, almost 14, lives with her adoptive grandfather, who brought her from Vietnam to his village in France when she was just two years old. They have many things in common, including a love of poetry—and a tangled history that Zazoo is only now beginning to understand. She has always known that Grand-Pierre was involved in World War II, but not what that meant, and she never imagined that he had fought in Vietnam. A boy who rides his bicycle into her village one morning asks a question from which many stories begin to unfold. The bicycle boy, Marius, and the middle-aged local pharmacist turn out to have surprising connections with Zazoo and Grand-Pierre. With the help of new and old friends, Zazoo makes the bittersweet discovery that the past isn’t over, but that it informs and colors the present and the future. Richly textured and beautifully written, Zazoo is an unusual and engrossing novel.
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
One wispy October dawn, a boy on a bike came and went. Little did almost-14-year-old Zazoo know that this inquisitive, bird-watching bicyclist would hold the key to her past and open a window to the future as well.The orphaned Zazoo lives alongside a canal with her loving adoptive grandfather, who brought her from Vietnam to his French village when she was just 2 years old. She and her tiny, 78-year-old Grand-Pierre share daily oatmeal, a passion for poetry, and a mysterious history. Why do the villagers seem leery of her gentle grandfather, even though he is often referred to as a war hero? Why does Grand-Pierre call World War II the "Awful Time"? And what happened to the brown-haired Jewish girl with whom he used to dance the tango so gracefully? Philosophical, compassionate, and exquisitely lyrical, Richard Mosher's Zazoo is one of our favorite teen novels of 2001. Zazoo's voice is dreamily poetic, but the dialogue is immediate and true, and the story carries enough suspense (When will her beloved bicyclist return? What is Grand-Pierre's story?) and romance, past and present, to keep the pages turning quickly. Zazoo's struggle with her increasingly forgetful grandfather, her friendships with Juliette and Monsieur Klein, and a powerful infatuation with her elusive visitor combine to create a multifaceted love story of an extraordinary sort. Along the way, we glimpse a time in history, an awful time, demanding us to ask the big questions about life, love, loneliness, death, war, and heroism--and how to let joy creep into sadness and carry on. Highly recommended. (Ages 13 and older) --Karin Snelson
About the Author
Richard Mosher lives in St. Paul, Minnestota. He is the author of one previous novel for young people, The Taxi Navigator, published by Putnam. This is his first book for Clarion.
Keywords: Zazoo, Books, Richard Mosher, Secrets, Fiction, Love, Vietnamese, France, Children's 12-Up - Fiction - General, Juvenile Fiction, Social Situations - General, Family - Multigenerational, Family - Orphans & Foster Homes, General
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