"The Avion My Uncle Flew" by Cyrus Fisher

Falling behind on all of my posts here! More to come soon!

I wanted to quickly write up about this book...on my quest of reading 30 books by December 8th, 2012, and this makes book #10! ;-)   This is a Newbery Honor book that I bought a while ago and just never read. It's pretty cute - it deals with a young boy (around the age of 11, I believe?) during WWII. His father returns from war and informs his family that they are moving to Paris briefly to help with some post-war work that he is contracted to do through the government. The boy, Johnny Littlehorn, is NOT happy to be leaving their Wyoming ranch but his mother, originally from France, is thrilled. Long story short, Johnny moves with his uncle (mother's brother) to a small village in France where his mother was raised. A thickening plot ensues as Johnny finds himself being followed by a Nazi spy. At the same time, Johnny's uncle is working on an avion (type of small airplane/glider) that he developed during the war. Can his uncle be successful before the last of his money runs out? Will Johnny figure out who is following him and why? Read it to find out!

The book is peppered with French words and by the end, you actually have a half-decent understanding of basic French without it being annoying or wordy. :-) Cute read.