This one’s a keeper – as in, check it out of the library, read it, then go to Amazon or whatnot and buy it. Really, a marvelous book (published in September) – a delight for parents to read, the child likes it, and together, parent and child go on an adventure, immersed in just fabulous illustrations.

We’re in Paris in the early 20th century. Adele picks up her little brother Simon from school and warns him to please not lose anything today on their way home.

Their "way home" is an amazingly circuitous route through Paris, and, at several points, Simon, not surprisingly, loses something. The gorgeous detailed drawings are of Paris landmarks – the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Jardins du Luxembourg, Boulevard St. Germaine, and so on. (Detailed endnote fill in the interested adult, and maps on the endpapers let you follow their route.)

As we read, I suspected that somehow each lost object was in the appropriate illustration, but they weren’t immediately apparent – but then, near the middle, I spied a mitten, at which point we started hunting. It wasn’t easy. I never did find his cap. Joseph was totally intrigued, not just by the puzzle of where Simon had left his mittens, scarf, knapsack and so on, but by the marvelous, amusing detail (in the background of one illustration one can spy…12 little girls in 2 straight lines. Edward Degas and Mary Cassatt try to help for Simon’s lost crayons in the Louvre) and, of course, that he can identify – just a little bit – with a boy who loses things.

I really can’t recommend this book enough – it’s enchanting.