One thing I noticed the most while reading the stories this time around was how much I pined for the innocence that’s in each of the boys. When I read it this week, I was able to appreciate the adults in the stories more, just like you get the innuendo when you watch Disney movies again ten years later. I loved the second story, “Les cow-boys,” because these little French boys thought that Kansas City was the Wild West. When Madame Karin had us read this in third grade, I remember thinking that I wished there were more girls who were friends with Nicolas, because he seemed so cool. What’s great about the stories in Le petit nicolas is that they’re all relatable, no matter how old you are. By the time the teacher rallies them to take the picture, the photographer has left, fed up with their antics. Alceste spills food on his shirt, Geoffroy is dressed as an astronaut and they all bully Agnan.

In the first story, you are introduced to Nicolas and his friends, Alceste, Eudes, Geoffroy, Joachim, Agnan and my favorite, “la maîtresse.” It provides the perfect scene to show each of their characters they are supposed to be taking a class picture, and each of them is acting out in one way or another. The book is a collection of short stories about a boy, Nicolas, and the things that happen to him, his friends and his family. There is an English version that I’ve never read, but I don’t think that it would be any less charming than the one I know and love. At least, the version I read was in French. As you can probably tell by the title and the authors’ names, the collection of short stories is in French. This week, I took the time to re-read one of my favorite books of all time, Le petit nicolas, by Jean-Jacques Sempé and René Goscinny.

Le petit nicolas rene goscinny