Saturday, January 1, 2011

Bonjour, Nicholas

I knew for a couple of years Nicholas, but before reading it (today) I first saw the movie. Not too easy to be understood by the 21st century Western children - as, for example the separate school for boys. But, from a boy point of view, it is an eternal experience in the world of growing ups all over the world. The movie didn't change too much from the book, maybe the order of the stories - the story with the boys trying their first cigar is left out, from politically healthy reasons, perhaps -, but we have the same candid and funny stories of the boys having a terrible funny and messy time at school, making the adults crazy, but without having complicate feelings of being misunderstood or not understood at all. In all they do, it is a natural simplicity of games and anti-social behavior, without being presented purposely as such. No need of a psychiatrist or of a special care, just stories and normal children. We all need to go through this, because otherwise we will never be able to appreciate our freedom. And we never have to be condemned to be perfect. This is a lesson for us, as parents, from le petit Nicolas. 

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