ABrueland
Book Talk Modern Realism
Title: Zazoo
Author: Richard Mosher
Publication Information: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Age group: 12 and up.
Topics: Racism, War, Love, Death, Family Dynamics
Notes: Beautifully written, poetry, art, history
Summary: Zazoo lives with her Grand Pierre in France in an old stone mill between a river and
a canal. Adopted by Grand Pierre, after a land mine took her parents at the age of two, Zazoo
was raised on poetry and the doting affections of her grandfather. France is her home, her
culture, and Vietnam is her birthplace. A mysterious boy, Marius, appears on the canal one
morning, brought there in the pursuit of bird watching. This encounter piques Zazoo’s interest
and moves her to learn more about the sleepy French village and the people who live there. This
journey brings her stories of war, love lost, the possibility of love, and forgiveness for past
wrongs for those that share the journey.
Booktalk: Close your eyes. Imagine that you live in France, you go to school in France, and you
have known the neighbors for 12 years. You feel French. Now add to that, you were born in
Vietnam, left when you were two, you only know about Vietnam through your French school,
your Grand Pierre and the taunts of the school kids. So where is your home? You would
happily be French, if people would simple let you be.
Meet Zazoo. She is French and looks Vietnamese. Her parents were victims of a landmine and
Grand Pierre found her and brought her back to France when she was two. She is fourteen now
and has been raised on oatmeal, poetry, swimming in the canal in the summer and skating on the
ice of the canal in winter. While swimming one day, she meets an odd bird-watcher on a black
push bike. She likes this boy and wants him to stay. He asks questions and then promises he
will be back soon. But what is meant by soon?
Zazoo’s Grand Pierre is an old man. He is losing his memory. She sleeps lightly to make sure if
he gets up in the night, he pees in the right place. She search his eyes, hoping that today the fog
will not be there. She thinks of her mysterious bird-watcher, his questions and begins to ask
them herself, in her own way. The people and history that she thought she knew, begins to
change. Adoptions, war, of love lost, and long silences. As Zazoo, redefines what she knows,
she allows those in her life to do the same.
This is a beautiful book — it reads like a warm summer day relaxing in the shade near water.
Personal Comments: The language and the poetry in this book are lovely. The story is slow
and easy, allowing the reader to enjoy the language fully. It does take a few chapters to realize it
so the slow start could be a hurdle; but one well worth clearing. Other titles to pair up with this
book could be The Book Thief, Diary of Anne Frank, (female protagonists, and War themes) or
American Born Chinese, The Absolute True Story of a Part-time Indian, (search for identity
within dual cultural influences).