Landslide

Synopsis -When Laurent’s father called him ‘a snail’ and sent him off to the mountains with four younger children to learn responsibility, he didn’t realize what a difficult task his son would have to face. For the children get buried alive as a result of landslide. No one knows their whereabouts and they have to live in a strange house in total darkness, with almost nothing to eat and drink but goat’s milk, and only the sound of the cuckoo clock to help them count the hours of the twelve days which pass before they are rescued. In this dilemma Laurent comes out of his snail’s shell, but though the others accept him as their leader, they do not always obey him, especially his little sister Bertille. She brings them into even greater danger when she tries to break the rules. The children have to learn to love with rats, and Laurent gets badly wounded before he finally finds a way of signalling for help. This is a book you are certain to read twice – first quickly, to find out what happens, and then again slowly, to re-live the adventures and perhaps imagine how you would have managed in the same predicament. For all Puffin readers between 9 and 13.