When her mother dies, 14-year-old Brigitte is sent away from her home in Poland to live in France with her aunt and uncle where she helps them in their café. This new life presents her with strange and interesting changes to deal with, from the bohemian café patrons, to her moody co-worker, Henri, and the curious circus people who seem to live difficult but exciting lives on the fringes of respectable society. When Brigitte befriends Paco, a young performer from the Cirque Medrano who poses for the temperamental Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, she is drawn into a web of international intrigue.Set in Paris at the turn of the 20th century, the novel captures the essence of the times and the many changes that were about to take place in the world: the beginnings of the Russian Revolution, Picasso's switch in painting styles from his Blue Period to his Rose Period, the rise of the middle class, and the maturing of Brigitte from child to young adult among them. Scott is an award-winning non-fiction author, so while Picasso plays a role in the story, she is careful not to put words into his mouth. The time and place of the novel, as well as many of the events, are well-researched, making the storyline and the characters realistic and believable. It is fiction based on fact.
Scott has combined history and art into an excellent novel for older elementary and early teen readers that may even encourage them to not only look at a few of Picasso's paintings, but to more closely examine this time period in world history as well.
