Petite Suzanne

by Marguerite de Angeli

A story filled with folkways and customs of daily life as experienced by a Gaspe Peninsula French-Canadian girl named Suzanne

Genres: Childrens

86 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1937

About the author

Marguerite de Angeli was an American writer and illustrator of children's books including the 1950 Newbery Award winning book The Door in the Wall. She wrote and illustrated twenty-eight of her own books, and illustrated more than three dozen books and numerous magazine stories and articles for other authors.

Reviews

[Clara Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The beautiful illustrations are the highlight of this lovely story of a French-Canadian girl. Just lovely! I accessed this book on openlibrary.org.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading The Door in the Wall, I am on a quest to read all of de Angeli's books. This is a sweet, charming story of a young girl named Suzanne. The illustrations are wonderful. Might have to be on the lookout for my own copy.

[Mazzou B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a sweet book which I especially love because of my identical heritage: French-Canadian! A delightful book to read aloud.
disclaimer: the family is Roman Catholic.

Second time: Jan. 25th 2014 aloud to young siblings

[Suzanne Conrad]

My namesake!

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming

[Kathy Brower · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another delightfully sweet story by Marguerite de Angeli!! A little girl, Suzanne, who lives with her uncle and aunt in the far eastern part of Canada, in a small fishing village, tells of her adventures. The whole book is only about the length of 4 months time, but we pick up special details about how life was lived and who were the special people in Suzanne’s everyday life. The story ends at Christmas, which is always a charming way to end any book. My 8 yr old son and I looked forward to reading a certain number of pages each day. This was a treasure of a book.

[Susannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a cozy story. Really, less a story than a description of life on the Gaspé Peninsula. The conflict is simple: a lost ax; a child learning to overcome night fears. The illustrations are sweet.

[Tiffany Skaran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super sweet story! I read it to my 6 year old. The setting was unique to me, but so interesting. Just wish I knew how to pronounce French names!

[Jobiska (Cindy) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found a Marguerite de Angeli I'd never seen before in a secondhand bookstore, so I had to get it. This one is...sweet. It does give you the feeling of life for a little French Canadian girl--presumably the book was set contemporarily to the writing thereof, though of course that makes it a period piece for today's reader! But there's not much conflict to the story, and none is central to Suzanne--her brother loses her grandfather's best axe, but (spoiler alert!) he finds it eventually and without the grandfather finding out. As a Quaker of course I'm most partial to the author's "Thee, Hannah!" anyway, but Hannah, for one, struggles with internal demons appropriate for a little Quaker girl of the 19th century to struggle with--envy of her non-Quaker friend's fancy clothes, mainly (and how she learns to love her Quaker bonnet is very moving). Suzanne struggles with...accidentally going into the mean widow's house for a couple of seconds; worrying about her brother and the aforementioned axe; and whether family members will find or not like her Christmas presents. Nice life!

But cute, and can't complain about de Angeli's lovely illustrations....

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I found this book at a used book store, I knew I'd found a Christmas gift for Mom. Her name is Suzanne, and she is of French heritage. And, of course, I knew the story would be good since it was by de Angeli. Mom loved it.