THE PRETTIEST GARGOYLE

Pouf or ""Pouah"" (this is translated here as Ugh -- you'll pick up some inessential French) -- a busy rather than believable story about Michael, 13, spending a year in Paris with his parents (he's from Corbin's native Oregon) who refuses to go to the school for Etrangers where he does indeed feel like a stranger. So he becomes a gargoyle-watcher and discovers a live, pretty girl way up on Notre Dame, said to have been kidnapped, actually a runaway from her rich uncle. He brings her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches; talks to her; and ultimately, after a scuffle with the police, effects her return home. Not quite another miracle for Our Lady of Paris, but a general act of faith all around.