Gabrielle's Reviews > Tistou les pouces verts

This book is a classic of my childhood; my old copy fell apart years ago, from having been read a hundred times, carried around everywhere, and probably dropped in the bath once or twice. I recently found a lovely copy at the bookstore and I couldn’t help myself: my shelves simply needed a copy of “Tistou les Pouces Verts”.

Written by Maurice Druon, who’s historical saga “The Accursed Kings” made him a huge success (and the direct inspiration for Mr. Martin’s fantasy saga/hot mess “A Song of Ice and Fire”), this book was something no one saw coming when it was published in the 1950’s. Druon had been writing about kings, queens, popes, politics, assassinations and wars for years – and then he went and published a children’s book about… flowers?!

Yup, flowers.

Tistou is a child born into a very wealthy and privileged family: his father is rich and handsome, his mother beautiful and sweet, they live in an enormous house that is kept clean and shiny by kind servants, and have a huge garden lovingly tended by a mustachioed gardener. In other words, a fairy tale, right? Until Tistou is sent to school, where he can’t help but fall asleep in class every single day. His father decides that Tistou will not go to school, and instead, be educated by being taken around various places in the city in order to learn about the world, how it works, and everyone’s place in it. What he could not have foreseen was how Tistou would react to the sudden understanding that the world is not the beautiful, sparkling place he has always believed it to be – and how he will go about trying to make the world a better place.

Looking back, I wonder if Druon had read anything about Buddhism, because the chapters where Mr. Trounadisse shows Tistou places like the hospital, the prison and his father's cannon factory are very reminiscent of the stories about the Buddha wandering the streets of his father’s kingdom and being shocked by the sight of sick, old and dying people. Both Tistou and the Buddha’s heartbreak at the sight of all this suffering kicks them into action, which in Tistou’s case is directly linked to the discovery of a very special ability: he has green thumbs! This means that whenever he touches a place where a plant or flower’s seed has been, it causes them to bloom and grow almost instantaneously. Well, what is a young boy with green thumbs and a big heart to do in the face of unhappiness?

In many ways, it’s similar to “The Little Prince” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... a tale that you first read as a child but can find moving and meaningful at any age. It can feel similarly preachy and heavy-handed (Are you telling us that war is bad, Mr. Druon?! What!?!), but its timeless fairy-tale-like charm trumps any cynical criticism I could have about it.

When I see a lush garden, or when I give or receive flowers or a plant, I always think of Tistou. It might be silly, but I like to imagine the little boy sticking his thumbs deep in a planter and step back, satisfied in the knowledge that soon, something beautiful and green will be growing where he was.

A classic of French children literature that should not be missed.