Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Postmark Paris: A Story in Stamps
Picture Book
For ages 8 and up
Chronicle Books, 2005 ISBN: 0811846423
Leslie and her family have moved to Paris for a year so that her father can take on an important job at the university. One day her father gives his daughter several lovely stamps, and later he gives her a stamp album to put the stamps in. Soon the father and daughter are going on all kinds of adventures to find more stamps.
There is a trip to a bookshop where they see some wonderful stamps, and then there is the day when they go to the stamp market to look at what the stamp collectors there have for sale.
Soon Leslie starts to find stamps, stories and new friends in all sorts of places; a neighbour gives her some stamps from Japan, and a poet sells her a stamp from his shop. The girl also starts to find stamps that help her tell her story about her stay in Paris. They show the places that she and her family visit, and they wonderfully illustrate the stories that she has to tell.
Full of stories with a definite Gallic flavour, this little book with its diary like entries and its pictures of stamps, will appeal not only to children as a record of a wonderful year-long adventure in Paris; it will also appeal to adults who love France and the French. The child narrator describes going to markets, going to school, riding on the subway, and visiting many of the famous places in Paris. Wonderful lyrical descriptions and touches of gentle humour make this a wonderful book to read again and again.
