Flood Warning

by Paul Berna

1960, Pantheon Books, Hardcover with dust jacket in excellent condition. Pages have tanned lightly. Translated from the French. Paul Berna tells a story about when a French boarding school is isolated by a raging flood, a boy and his teacher help fellow school members escape. A fast-paced story of danger, heroism, and loyalty. Against this background of tension, Paul Berna tells a story of changing loyalties and developing character that makes this book as memorable in its way as the author's two previous books, The Horse Wthout a Head and The Knights of King MIdas.

159 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Paul Berna, est le pseudonyme le plus connu de Jean-Marie-Edmond Sabran (21 février 1908, Hyères - 19 janvier 1994, Paris), écrivain français du XXe siècle.

Reviews

[Nansi Kunze · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book. I think it's safe to say that I've read this more than a dozen times since receiving it as a present when I was about 13, and it continues to delight me even now. Berna had extraordinary skill in describing the subtle interaction between teenage characters, and his portrayal of Monsieur Sala, a teacher who is about to leave his school in disgrace at the beginning of the book, is just brilliant. It always amazes me that I've never found anyone else who seems to have heard of Flood Warning, let alone read it. Highly recommended - if you can find a copy!

[John Dawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paul Berna wrote a whole series of children's books. This was one of my favourites, depicting the trials and tribulations of a group of characters in a boarding school overwhelmed by floods. Translated from the French.

[Bethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always love catastrophe survival stories, but most especially when the author doesn't focus on making the details incredibly gory or depressing.
Flood warning is a superb example of this. There is an ever present tension as the floodwaters rise, and the story of how the schoolboys and masters escape is a thrill to read. But even more enjoyable is the story of the characters and their development through the crisis. Each character is very much their own person and watching them become something more through the book is a real pleasure.
Only negative for me was at the beginning where there is a bit of a dump of characters all at once. We meet 8 or 9 boys in their classroom and each is described a little and I had to keep turning back to that page to remember which was which and remind myself of their characteristics. Possibly because it's a French translation I found the names harder to stick in my head. (Except Viscount Hubert Boisson de Chazelles - who could forget that name! And his character matched perfectly which I loved)
Once I got them all in my head thought I was good.