ALICE ATHERTON'S GRAND TOUR

Alice Atherton, a fictional 10-year-old, visits real-life American expatriates Sara and Gerald Murphy in Antibes—and meets luminaries such as Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway.

Simple yet elegant text immediately sets the time and place: New York, 1927. Stuck in the stuffy parlor, Alice fantasizes about playing outside in the snow instead of listening to boring Old Miss Pennyweather. When she starts to drift off, the governess becomes worried and hustles her to bed. After a visit from the family doctor, Alice’s father agrees that she is suffering due to her mother’s recent death. His solution: send Alice and Miss Pennyweather to France to stay with his friends the Murphys; there, Alice will acquire “the art of living fully.” Miss Pennyweather, a rigid and easily scandalized stock character, presents plenty of humorous diversion on the ocean voyage and subsequent travels, returning home almost immediately after arriving at the unconventional Murphy household. Alice, on the other hand, is delighted to stay. In no time, she’s running about barefoot, riding donkeys with the Murphy children, and, indeed, learning valuable life lessons. Occasionally, the text references Alice’s grieving process, but mostly the story revolves around a fast-paced, humorous series of adventures, including a treasure hunt instigated by Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald. Uplifting though didactic messages about overcoming loss and finding oneself are woven through tantalizing bits of period artifacts, history, and biography. Characters are cued white.

Sweetly entertaining.