The Little Prince receives a touching letter

Christine Darfeuille is a specialist educator working with teenagers suffering from disabling diseases at the Paul Cézanne care centre in Tournus (71). One afternoon a week, she runs an activity entitled “Tales and Stories” for a group of four young people. As part of the activity, she read the group the story of The Little Prince. In a letter she wrote to us, Christine recounts how the four teenagers were totally captivated by the story and decided to do some work of their own on the subject. With their teacher’s help, Alice, Amélie, Anthony and Florian researched the background to the story and its author, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

The result was this touching letter to the Little Prince, written by all four:
“Dear Little Prince,
This is Alice, Amélie, Anthony and Florian writing to you. Christine read us your story, and we also listened to it on cassette.
Amélie: “It was my idea to write to you; I loved your story. Are you going to come back to earth, just beneath the star? Did you find the fox? Have you tamed him?”
Amélie wonders if the Little Prince and the fox are perhaps dead.

Anthony: “If you are still alive, have you found your rose again?”
We have studied the life of Saint-Exupéry and realised that he will never see the Little Prince again because his airplane fell into the sea a long time ago.
February 2012
Alice, Amélie, Anthony, Florian.”
There’s no need to tell you that we would love to receive letters like this more often. First of all, Amélie should be reassured: the Little Prince and his fox are indeed still alive. Their friendship is unshakable (remember the colour of wheat!) and we should also not forget that the two friends are engaged in some new adventures on TV channel France 3.
As far as the disappearance of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is concerned, we should point out one detail: his masterpiece, The Little Prince, is one of the most popular books in the whole world. This global success and recognition (not to mention the four friends’ interest in his book) is proof that the disappearance of the man nicknamed “Tonio” from this world is only relative.
We would like to end this unusual and very special news item with Alice, Amélie, Anthony and Florian’s drawings. Thanks again to all four of you!