The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson

“But Suzy’s eyes were looking across the river to the little Isle of the Cité, where Notre Dame was illuminated like a saint’s dream. One especially pretty scene occurs at the Christmas Eve party under Tournelle Bridge:

Other places of mention are the Place Maubert, Rue de Montorgueil, Rue de l’Opera, the Theatre-Francais, and the Jardin des Plantes, the Parisian botanical garden.Ĭarlson lovingly presents the sights of Paris through the eyes of the Calcet children. Eustache Church, down Rue de Petits Carreaux with its “patterns of cobbles so tiny that they looked like mosaic” (58), and on to the gypsy encampment at the Court of Miracles. When Armand takes the children to see the gypsies, they first stop by Les Halles, the fresh food market, and then walk past St. Together they walk among the crowd of holiday shoppers on the Rue de Rivoli, visit Father Christmas at the Louvre, and attend a Christmas Eve party under Tournelle Bridge. It is there that he meets the three homeless children who will steal his heart. He descends to the cobbled quay along the Seine river and returns to his favored spot under the bridge. And no ordinary walking tour of Paris ~ a walking tour of Paris conducted by an old hobo who would rather live in Paris than anywhere else.Īt the beginning of the story, Armand walks past Notre Dame Cathedral. Reading this book is like being taken on a walking tour of Paris.

The Family Under the Bridge is a celebration of the City of Light, a celebration of generosity and kindness, and a celebration of family sticking together through tough times. She died September 23, 1997, in Rhode Island.Īs the Christmas season draws near, I am reminded of a beautiful children’s book set in Paris at Christmas time ~ The Family Under the Bridge, by American author Natalie Savage Carlson. Carlson lived in Rhode Island, Oklahoma, California, the Pacific Northwest, Florida, and abroad. Materials for fifteen of her novels are held at the Children's Literature Research Collection at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen International Children's Book Award. Many readers will remember her series of Happy Orpheline books about a group of French orphans and their carefree lives.

One of her best-loved books is The Family Under the Bridge (1958), which was a Newbery Honor book in 1959. Her first book, The Talking Cat and Other Stories of French Canada (where her mother was born), was published in 1952.

Her first story was published in the Baltimore Sunday Sun when she was eight years old. After she married, she moved around a great deal as the wife of a Navy officer, living for many years in Paris, France. Natalie Savage Carlson was born on October 3, 1906, in Kernstown, Virginia.

The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson