Book//mark – Le Petit Nicolas | René Goscinny / Illustrations by Jean-Jacques Sempé, 1959

”Remember that time when I punched you in the nose? And then you punched me in the nose?
And we all started crying and then everything was okay again?”

“Alceste likes to eat. He is big. Clotaire and Eudes are fighting. Agnan cries.”

“Alec hit him on the cap with his tomahawk and said he was taking him prisoner and Rufus was upset because he’d dropped his whistle in the grass and I was crying a bit and telling Eddie this was my yard and I never wanted anything to do with him again, and everyone was shouting and it was all great, we were having a fantastic time.”

“I never knew Dad liked playing cowboys so much. When we came down later in the evening Mr. Billings had been gone a long time, but there was Dad still tied to the tree, shouting and making faces. Fancy being able to play games all by yourself!
My dad is great!”

“Please, miss,” asked Max, “is it really Yocken or Jochen?” Our teacher explained that [the new boy’s]
name was spelt “Jochen” but in his own language it sounded like “Yocken.”

“Okay, we’ll call him Jocky,” said Max.
“No, you have to say Yocky,” said Jeremy.

“You shut up, Yeremy,” said Max, and our teacher sent them both to stand in the corner.

The characters [names from the English translation]

Nicolas [Nicholas]: He is sensitive and attached to true values like friendship,
love of one’s parents, and has some sense of justice.
He is not good at arithmetic and smallest in his class.
Clotaire [Mickey]: “He’s bottom of the class.”
Alceste [Alex]: Nicolas’ best friend, “he’s fat and he eats all the time.”
Eudes [Eddie]: “He’s very strong and likes to punch our friends on the nose.”
Geoffroy [Geoffrey]: “His dad is very rich and buys him everything he wants.”
Agnan [Cuthbert]: “He is ranked first in the class and is the teacher’s pet and therefore
nobody likes him, but you can’t hit him as often as you’d like, because he wears glasses.”
Joachim [Jeremy]: He has a little brother.
Maixent [Max]: He runs very fast because of his long legs.
Rufus [Rufus]: “His father is a policeman, and he’s got a cop’s whistle.”
Marie-Edwige [Mary-Jane]: “She’s the very nice girl.”
Louisette [Louise]: The daughter of a friend of the mother of Nicolas; Nicolas decides
he wants to marry her because she plays football well.
Rex [Rex]: A stray dog that Nicolas found; his real name is Kiki.