An unpublished chapter of the Little Prince?
Aren’t children amazing? On a school trip to a museum with her classmates of 6D from the Emile-Zola secondary school, Elodie picked up a piece of paper lying in a corner. Back at school, Elodie showed her find to her teacher, Mrs. Mathieu, who soon realised she was looking at an unpublished chapter of the Little Prince. Experts who examined the document confirmed the handwriting as that of Saint-Exupéry himself. The history of this mysterious document relates that during his stay in the USA, Saint-Exupéry gave the chapter to an American friend. That friend was later involved in the Allied landings in Normandy, and donated the priceless document to a museum in France…
The chapter deals with an eater of sweets, who refuses to share his sweets with the Little Prince, an allegory of the selfishness of some grown-ups.
Isn’t that great news for all the friends of the Little Prince? We picked up the story from local newspaper La Presse de la Manche in its 1st April edition…
Oops! 1st April? You’ve guessed right: it was an April Fool’s hoax, cooked up by the newspaper’s deputy editor, Laurent Gouhier, and staged with the help of class 6D as accomplices. Well done to all concerned!