ARISTIDE

Aristide could speak English quite well. He had learned it from his clever father...and from his mother, who was not clever but knew enough to come to England for the week-end to do some shopping."" Despite his advantages, Aristide is momentarily miserable when his plastic mattress carries him across the Channel to the English coast and ""capture"" by a band of small boys. Between big meals, and long naps, Aristide learns that his Captors are PreParing for war with the boys in the next garden--but his father has taught him that war is bad so Aristide sabotages the efforts of both camps by making off with clothes and supplies. The resulting tumult leads to Aristide's discovery and the arrival of his auspicious parents--his mother in tears, his father rather proud of Aristide's success as a peacemaker; the rest is sudden fame and return flight. Opposed to a certain adult smugness and sophistication is a very small boy in a quite long story that looks like a picture book--a combination that adds up to no finders. no takers.