The Golem series is definitely high in my favourite childhood books. (Although I suppose this comes as no suprise, considering I am an unapologetic Murail fan.)
The main group of characters is so diverse it verges on the bizarre - Majid, Samir, Sébastien and Aïcha, secondary school students ranging from class representative to budding school bully, Jean-Hugues, their overwhelmed French teacher, still living with his mother and hung up on videogames characters, Nadia, the pretty science teacher with a lisp and Albert, the shady videogame designer... And yet it works. The bizarre fusion brings about thousands of opportunities for mischief and hilarious gags.
This story's greatness is all in the details, from Samir's off-the-wall stories about Koko the koala to Natasha the golem Lara Croft lookalike and her pocket-sized dragon Bubulle, and from the delights of Mondial-Everything to poor Mrs. Lescure's attempts to understand what's happening at the teacher's conference.