Title: Six Chevaux Bleus
Author: Yvonne Escoula
Date: 1954, 1967
Publisher: Gallimard
ISBN: none
Length: 188 pages
Illustrations: drawings by Tibor Csernus
Quote: “L'art chinois est le plus fin, le plus delicat du
monde. L'artisan chinois n'a pas son pareil...je fais le commerce des oeuvres
d'art chinoises.”
Yves and Jean-Pierre, twelve-year-old identical twins, lost
their father long ago. So did Margot, the fifteen-year-old daughter of the
superintendent of their Paris apartment building. Both of their mothers seem a
bit, well, troubled—the twins' mother is grim and nervous, Margot's mother may
be “medicated,” the two dislike each other--and although other children in the
building aren't always friendly, these three have parent-pity in common.
The twins at least have an Aunt Martha, the antique dealer
who specializes in Chinese pieces, although she handles other Asian art as
well. They spend Thursdays with her. (An old antisemitic tradition in some
parts of Europe was that classes met on Saturday, and students' “day off” fell
on a weekday.) At least they do until their mother starts to worry that they're
doing so much Chinese history with Aunt Martha that they'll forget their French
history, and sends Yves, alone, to tell Martha that he and Jean-Pierre can't
visit her again until they've passed their final exams.
Whereupon Yves gets into enough trouble that the twins, and
also Margot, spend the rest of the week solving a mystery for Aunt Martha,
school forgotten...
There are other parts of this story that don't hang together
as a good mystery novel should. Yves sees a Chinese-looking gentleman sneak
into Martha's store, break a porcelain horse, and sneak out again. Martha
blames Yves, who is then goaded to enlist Jean-Pierre and Margot to help track
down the old man. On Thursday, when Yves sees the old man and the three
children start checking other antique stores to see whether anyone else has
seen him, he speaks French with a heavy accent. The next time they see him,
he's apparently lost the accent...in less than one week.
Meanwhile they learn that some French people are also looking
for blue porcelain horses, although the horses aren't especially old or
valuable, and those people are quite nasty. One of them knocks an old
man with a cane down on the pavement; another threatens to ruin Margot's
excellent reputation as a good, law-abiding, high-achieving student who can
hope to go all the way through law school on merit scholarships.
According to the rules of Detective Stories For Children,
nobody's life is in immediate danger (although we can guess what happened to
the missing fathers the children can hardly remember and we're told of similar
dangers in China). The children, who are routinely verbally abused by adults in
a way many baby-boomers vividly
remember, will finally hear encouraging words from adults. The nasty young
Frenchman who caused some of that verbal abuse will be shown up as the stupid
dupe he's been. The children will meet the Chinese gentleman and get to hear an
exciting adventure story from contemporary China. It's a nice cozy mystery,
suitable for middle school students if they read French.
Six Chevaux Bleus also has some historical appeal: according to Jane Badger, it was the basis for a TV series. Prices are entering the collector range, possibly for this reason. Currently this web site can still offer copies for $5 per book plus $5 per package (four books of this size would fit into one package) plus $1 per online payment.
Sets of china horses like the ones described are available online:
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| Buy them at https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/510540739/vintage-horses-blanc-de-chine-set-of |
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| Buy them at https://www.etsy.com/listing/500477056/set-of-3-vintage-chinese-bluepurple? |
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