The Vo family has just moved to Paris from a small town in northern France. The change is almost more than nine-year-old Vero can manage. Her parents are too busy to keep an eye on her in the big city, and her older brother, Philippe, wants nothing to do with her. In fact, the siblings can barely stand each other. Since Vero and Philippe aren’t allowed to play outside, they must find ways to amuse themselves. Vero devises imaginative activities like raising a prize snail, creating families of chestnuts, and engineering a fake monster to scare her brother. Philippe does his best to put up with her antics, though the task becomes increasingly difficult. Francine, the young maid and nanny, is little help, consumed as she is by housework and a new boyfriend. Over the course of the year, everyone in the family learns to adjust to their new home. Vero survives her brother’s meanness, her father’s attempts at cooking, and a new school. And when Francine is fired, Vero and Philippe unite in the cause to get her back. Gr 3-5-Veronique Vo, nine, yearns for her familiar country home in Normandy after she moves with her family and nanny/housemaid to Paris. Anxiety about starting a new school, making friends, and navigating a strange city is exacerbated when her mother rashly fires Francine and Vero is left in the care of her 12-year-old brother, Philippe, the "Great Scholar." Episodic chapters offer humorous situations while furthering the plot, which revolves around the difficulties of life without the nanny and how to get her back. One particularly droll incident involves Mr. Vo's scientific approach to cooking. After several unsuccessful "trials," he resorts to using toothpaste to prepare mayonnaise for the family dinner-with minty results. In other chapters, Vero worries that she has inadvertently poisoned her new friend, trains a pet snail, and fashions her mother's favorite shirt into a doll's dress. Philippe resents being burdened with the care of his little sister and alternately ignores or mocks her. The siblings finally unite with a successful plan to get Francine back. While McDaniels's frequent (two per chapter), detailed pen-and-ink drawings are occasionally amusing, Vero appears disproportionately small in some pictures, and the children are portrayed as mop-headed poppets. Nevertheless, this entertaining read offers children a glimpse into the life of a Parisian schoolchild; a strict, but loving family; and the ups and downs of sibling relationships. Barbara Auerbach, New York City Public Schools Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.