Editorial Review

“Little Marcel grows up in Strasbourg, on the border between France and Germany, fascinated with the silent film star Charlie Chaplin. He, too, wants to use only his gestures and the medium of silence to make people laugh and cry. But Hitler intervenes when the boy is 16, and Marcel becomes part of the French Resistance, helping to forge identification cards for Jewish children and even leading small groups, dressed as boy scouts, to safety in Switzerland. At the end of World War II, Marcel is able to study the ancient art of mime—and for the next 60 years he performs around the world. This whimsical biography, with its dark notes of oppression and war, reminds readers of the power of dreams and the importance of practice and persistence.”—Washington Parent