Daniel Pennac

A comedy on a public relations man in a department store in Paris whose job is to mollify angry customers. Benjamin Malaussene is doing splendid work until the store is bombed and people die, whereupon he becomes a suspect.

Daniel Pennac has never forgotten what it was like to be a very unsatisfactory student, nor the day one of his teachers saved his life by assigning him the task of writing a novel. This was the moment Pennac realized that no-one has to be a failure for ever. In School Blues, Pennac explores the many facets of schooling: how fear makes children reject education; how children can be captivated by inventive thinking; how consumerism has altered attitudes to learning. Haunted by memories of his own turbulent time in the classroom, Pennac enacts dialogues with his teachers, his parents and his own students, and serves up much more than a bald analysis of how young people are consistently failed by a faltering system.

Shortly after the death of his brother Bernard, Daniel Pennac undertakes a public reading of a famous Melville novel, Bartleby the Scribe. But Bernard and he shared the same passion for Bartleby's character. By alternating Bartleby's excerpts here as he adapted them for the theater and the anecdotes about Bernard, tender, funny or scathing memories, replicas full of humor and lucidity, Daniel Pennac draws the portrait of this missing brother, true accomplice, irreplaceable companion of his life.

Pourquoi Kamo doit-il apprendre l'anglais en trois mois? Qui est donc Cathy, sa mystérieuse correspondante de l'agence Babel? Se moque-t-elle de lui? Est-elle folle? Est-ce lui qui devient fou? Menez l'enquête avec son meilleur ami ...

Un essai narratif au ton primesautier qui constitue un bel éloge de la lecture "libre", du plaisir de lire. Une partie du livre s'adresse aux parents de jeunes enfants, l'autre aux enseignants des niveaux élémentaire et secondaire. Pour un point de vue antinomique: cf. Danièle Sallenave, "Le don des morts."

Courageux, Le Chien ! Pas joli, joli, mais un sacré cabot ! Comme il se bagarre pour vivre ! Ce qu'il cherche ? Une maîtresse. Une vraie, qui l'aime pour de bon. Pomme lui plaît beaucoup, au Chien. Un grand rire, des cheveux comme un soleil... Hélas, elle est tellement capricieuse ! Une vraie caboche, cette Pomme. Comment Le Chien va-t-il l'apprivoiser ?

Paintings by Claude Monet illustrate the memories of childhood.

Un livre de plus sur l'école, alors ? - Non, pas sur l'école ! Sur le cancre. Sur la douleur de ne pas comprendre et ses effets collatéraux sur les parents et les professeurs. - Editeur.

Autobiografisch relaas van het wel en wee van een zwakke (slechte) leerling die later, dankzij het geduld en de aandacht van een aantal leraren, zijn diploma haalt en met veel plezier zelf leraar wordt.

This magical volume begins by recalling the tender triangular relationship of a parent, a storybook and a child who loves to be read to. Years later, the enchanted child has become a reluctant teenaged reader. How, Pennac asks, does the love of reading begin? How is it lost? And how can it be regained - by everyone from children to adults? Delving into his experiences as a parent, a writer and a teacher, Pennac uncovers new ways to restore the enchantment of reading and draws up a liberating Readers Bill of Rights, including the right to skip pages, the right to read anything, the right to not defend your tastes, and the right to escapism.